Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090055330 | METHOD FOR ANOMALY PREDICTION OF BATTERY PARASITIC LOAD - Anomaly prediction of battery parasitic load includes processing input data related to a state of charge for a battery and a durational factor utilizing a machine learning algorithm and generating a predicted start-up state of charge. Warnings are issued if the predicted start-up state of charge drops below a threshold level within an operational time. | 02-26-2009 |
20090157335 | TELEMATICS-BASED METHOD AND SYSTEM OF BATTERY PARASITIC LOAD VALIDATION FOR A VEHICLE FLEET - Parasitic loads on a vehicular battery are evaluated based on an estimated reduction in the state of charge of the battery over the course of an engine-off state. | 06-18-2009 |
20090295559 | INTEGRATED HIERARCHICAL PROCESS FOR FAULT DETECTION AND ISOLATION - A system and method for determining the root cause of a fault in a vehicle system, sub-system or component using models and observations. In one embodiment, a hierarchical tree is employed to combine trouble or diagnostic codes from multiple sub-systems and components to get a confidence estimate of whether a certain diagnostic code is accurately giving an indication of problem with a particular sub-system or component. In another embodiment, a hierarchical diagnosis network is employed that relies on the theory of hierarchical information whereby at any level of the network only the required abstracted information is being used for decision making. In another embodiment, a graph-based diagnosis and prognosis system is employed that includes a plurality of nodes interconnected by information pathways. The nodes are fault diagnosis and fault prognosis nodes for components or sub-systems, and contain fault and state-of-health diagnosis and reasoning modules. | 12-03-2009 |
20090322283 | Method for battery capacity estimation - An embodiment contemplates a method for estimating a capacity of a battery. A state of charge is determined at a first instant of time and at a second instant of time. A difference in the state of charge is determined between the first instant of time and the second instant of time. A net coulomb flow is calculated between the first instant of time and the second instant of time. The battery capacity is determined as a function of the change in the state of charge and the net coulomb flow. | 12-31-2009 |
20090322340 | Method for battery state-of-health monitoring using battery voltage during vehicle starting - A method is provided for determining a battery's state-of-health. An initial battery voltage is measured after a first voltage drop during an initiation of an engine cranking phase. A battery voltage is monitored during the remainder of the engine cranking phase. A lowest battery voltage is determined during the remainder of the engine cranking phase. A determination is made if a voltage difference between the lowest battery voltage and the initial battery voltage at the initiation of the engine cranking phase is less than a voltage threshold. A low battery state-of-health is identified in response to the voltage difference being less than the voltage threshold. | 12-31-2009 |
20090326841 | Pattern recognition approach to battery diagnosis and prognosis - A method is provided for determining a state-of-health of a battery in a vehicle-during an engine cranking phase. An engine cranking phase is initiated. Characteristic data is recorded that includes battery voltage data and engine cranking speed data during the engine cranking phase. The characteristic data is provided to a pre-processing unit. The pre-processing unit normalizes the characteristic data for processing within a classifier. The normalized data is input o the classifier for determining the vehicle battery state-of-health. The classifier has a trained state-of-health decision boundary resulting from a plurality of trials in which predetermined characterization data is collected with known classes. The battery state-of-health is classified based on the trained state-of-health decision boundary. | 12-31-2009 |
20100026306 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TELEMATICS-BASED VEHICLE NO-START PROGNOSIS - A system and method for determining the status of a vehicle battery to determine whether the battery may not have enough charge to start the vehicle. The method includes collecting data relating to the battery on the vehicle and collecting data relating to the battery at a remote back-office. Both the vehicle and the remote data center determine battery characteristics based on the collected data and the likelihood of a vehicle no-start condition, where the algorithm used at the remote back-office may be more sophisticated. The data collected at the remote back-office may include vehicle battery information transmitted wirelessly from the vehicle, and other information, such as temperature, battery reliability, miles that the vehicle has driven per day, ambient temperature, high content vehicle, etc. Both the vehicle and the remote back-office may determine the battery open circuit voltage. | 02-04-2010 |
20100042287 | PROACTIVE VEHICLE SYSTEM MANAGEMENT AND MAINTENANCE BY USING DIAGNOSTIC AND PROGNOSTIC INFORMATION - A system and method for providing proactive vehicle system management and maintenance using diagnostic and prognostic information. Vehicle information is collected from vehicle sensors and/or sub-systems by an on-board module on the vehicle and/or at a remote facility where the information is wirelessly transmitted to the remote facility. The collected information is analyzed to determine the health of various systems, sub-systems and components so that the remaining useful life of the systems, sub-systems and components can be predicted. By utilizing the diagnostic and prognostic information, a vehicle control strategy can be reconfigured to minimize customer impact. Further, if a software problem is detected, temporary or permanent software fixes can be provided automatically and remotely through a remote service garage. | 02-18-2010 |
20100063668 | TELEMATICS-ENABLED AGGREGATED VEHICLE DIAGNOSIS AND PROGNOSIS - A system and method for telemetrically collecting on-road vehicle diagnostic data. In one embodiment, the method includes collecting vehicle diagnostic data from service shops, on-road vehicles and warranty records, aggregating the collected data and extracting knowledge therefrom. The extracted knowledge can be used to enhance algorithms on-board vehicles or at service centers so as to better identify vehicle faults and provide enhanced diagnostics and prognostics. The enhanced algorithms can then be used to provide predictive maintenance suggestions, provide trouble shooting assistance or provide vehicle design improvements. | 03-11-2010 |
20100179723 | DRIVER BEHAVIOR BASED REMOTE VEHICLE MIS-USAGE WARNING AND SELF-MAINTENANCE - Information associated with vehicle components and sub-systems is monitored by an on-board module, and associated data, either processed or raw, is telematically transmitted to a remote data center by wireless communications. The remote data center archives the received data in a database for each separate vehicle that is part of the system. The remote data center analyzes the data to ascertain whether the data indicates a usage pattern and/or vehicle condition that may have a detrimental effect on certain vehicle components, sub-systems and systems, such as excessive component wear. For example, the data center runs pattern detection algorithms on the data to identify known usage patterns that may potentially impact normal vehicle operation. If such a usage pattern is detected, the remote data center may issue a warning to the vehicle operator, or other designated person, that such usage may have a detrimental effect on the vehicle or vehicle components. | 07-15-2010 |
20100191414 | INTEGRATED DIAGNOSIS AND PROGNOSIS SYSTEM AS PART OF THE CORPORATE VALUE CHAIN - An integrated diagnosis and prognosis system that collects vehicle information over the life of a vehicle and its development. The system provides the collected vehicle information to supplier management, product development management, service/dealership management, customer relations departments and production facilities, which use the information to take certain action for existing vehicles, fleets of vehicles or future vehicles to improve vehicle reliability and quality. | 07-29-2010 |
20100198452 | DRIVER WORKLOAD-BASED VEHICLE STABILITY ENHANCEMENT SYSTEM - A vehicle stability enhancement system that is adapted for an estimated driver workload. The system includes a driver workload estimation processor that estimates the driver workload based on certain factors, such as the vehicle speed or driver-behavior factors. The driver workload estimation is used to adjust the damping ratio and natural frequency in dynamic filters in a command interpreter to adjust a desired yaw rate signal and a desired side-slip signal. The driver workload estimation is also used to generate a yaw rate multiplication factor and a side-slip multiplication factor that modify a yaw rate stability signal and a side-slip stability signal in a feedback control processor that generates a stability control signal. | 08-05-2010 |
20100217478 | TELEMATICS-BASED VEHICLE STATUS MONITORING AND CUSTOMER CONCERN RESOLVING - A system and method for monitoring the state of health of vehicle components, sub-systems and systems on board the vehicle and/or remotely, and use collected information and data about the vehicle to establish a database for the vehicle as to the state of health of the various components, sub-systems and systems. When a customer brings a vehicle to a service center or dealership complaining about a particular problem, and the service center wishes to replace a part associated with that problem, the OEM or manufacturer can authorize or reject the replacement of the part based on review of the database as to the known state of health of the part. Therefore, only parts which may not be healthy will typically be authorized for replacement. Also, the database can be made available to customers for customer concern resolving. | 08-26-2010 |
20100228423 | AGGREGATED INFORMATION FUSION FOR ENHANCED DIAGNOSTICS, PROGNOSTICS AND MAINTENANCE PRACTICES OF VEHICLES - A system and method for enhancing vehicle diagnostic and prognostic algorithms and improving vehicle maintenance practices. The method includes collecting data from vehicle components, sub-systems and systems, and storing the collected data in a database. The collected and stored data can be from multiple sources for similar vehicles or similar components and can include various types of trouble codes and labor codes as well as other information, such as operational data and physics of failure data, which are fused together. The method generates classes for different vehicle components, sub-systems and systems, and builds feature extractors for each class using data mining techniques of the data stored in the database. The method also generates classifiers that classify the features for each class. The feature extractors and feature classifiers are used to determine when a fault condition has occurred for a vehicle component, sub-system or system. | 09-09-2010 |
20110000421 | METHOD AND APPARATUS TO ESTIMATE AUTOMOTIVE ALTERNATOR BELT SLIP - An embodiment contemplates a method for determining belt slip in a vehicle. The vehicle includes an engine and an alternator rotatably coupled by an accessory drive belt. The accessory drive belt engaging a rotating member of the engine for driving a rotating member of the alternator. A battery voltage is measured. An estimated battery voltage is determined as a function of engine speed. The belt slip of the alternator is detected in response to a comparison of the estimated battery voltage and the measured battery voltage. | 01-06-2011 |
20110125430 | METHOD AND APPARATUS TO MONITOR STATE OF HEALTH OF ELECTRICAL CONNECTIONS BETWEEN BATTERY AND GENERATOR - A system and method for monitoring the state of health of the connection between a generator and a battery includes detecting an interruption in power between the generator and the battery, incrementing a counter each time an interruption is detected, generating a trend of a number of interruptions over time based on a number of increments in the counter, monitoring a rate of increase in the number of interruptions over time and determining if the rate of increase in the number of interruptions over time is greater than a predetermined threshold. | 05-26-2011 |
20110202227 | HEALTH PROGNOSIS FOR COMPLEX SYSTEM USING FAULT MODELING - A system and method for providing component and sub-system state of health prognosis in a complex system using fault models and component aging models. The method includes determining a current state of health value for a sub-system using fault signature test results and determining current state of health values for a plurality of components in the sub-system using the fault signature test results. The method also determines current state of health values for components in the system that cannot use fault signature test results using a first probability model and the current state of health values for the plurality of components. The method determines predicted future state of health values for the components in the sub-system using component aging models and determines a predicted future state of health value for the sub-system using a second probability model and the future state of health values of the components. | 08-18-2011 |
20110202494 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR VEHICLE COMPONENT HEALTH PROGNOSIS BY INTEGRATING AGING MODEL, USAGE INFORMATION AND HEALTH SIGNATURES - A system and method for determining the health of a component includes retrieving measured health signatures from the component, retrieving component usage variables, estimating component health signatures using an aging model, determining an aging derivative using the aging model and calculating an aging error based on the estimated component health signatures, the aging derivative and the measured health signatures. | 08-18-2011 |
20110238259 | V2X-Connected Cooperative Diagnostic & Prognostic Applications in Vehicular AD HOC Networks - A method is provided for processing and analyzing diagnostic and prognostic data in a vehicle ad-hoc network. Diagnostic and prognostic data is exchanged between a host vehicle and remote vehicles in the vehicle ad-hoc network. The received diagnostic and prognostic data is stored in a memory of the host vehicle. Redundancy is eliminated in the received diagnostic and prognostic data. The diagnostic and prognostic data is assigned to clusters. Anomalies are detected in the stored data utilizing clustering techniques that determine whether a cluster of diagnostic and prognostic data formed from the host vehicle substantially deviates from the clusters of diagnostic and prognostic data formed from the remote vehicles. A driver of a vehicle is notified if the cluster data from a host vehicle deviates significantly from the clusters from the remote vehicles. | 09-29-2011 |
20120072144 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ESTIMATING SOC OF A BATTERY - A method of determining a state-of-charge for a battery is provided. A startup state-of-charge of the battery is determined as a function of a present open circuit voltage measurement for a present ignition startup, at least one open circuit voltage observation of a previous ignition startup, and a current draw integration over a time period from a previous ignition startup event to a present ignition startup event. A run state-of-charge change of the battery is determined for an ignition key-on operation. The run state-of-charge change comprises a difference between the present open circuit voltage measurement and the at least one previous open circuit voltage observation, and is determined in response to of a current draw integration over a respective period of time. The state-of-charge of the battery is calculated based on a function of the startup state-of-charge and the run state-of-charge change of the battery. | 03-22-2012 |
20120072145 | Method and Apparatus for Estimating Battery Capacity of a Battery - A method is provided for determining a battery capacity for a vehicle battery. Open circuit voltages of a vehicle battery are measured during ignition startups. A battery parameter is estimated for the vehicle battery that is a function of a present open circuit voltage measurement for a present ignition startup, a function of at least one open circuit voltage observation of a previous ignition startup, a function of a current draw integration over a time period from a previous ignition startup event to a present ignition startup event, and a function of an adjustment factor. A battery parameter is determined based on a new battery. The battery capacity is calculated as function of the battery parameter for the vehicle battery and the battery parameter for the new battery. | 03-22-2012 |
20120116630 | Process for Service Diagnostic and Service Procedures Enhancement - A method is provided for enhancing service diagnostics utilizing service repair data of previously serviced vehicles. Service repair data of previously serviced vehicles is obtained from a memory storage device. The service data is compiled into a service diagnostic code dataset and a service labor code dataset. The service diagnostic code dataset and service labor code dataset are categorized into an electronic data table. Respective combinations are formed in the electronic data table. An aggregate count is determined for each respective combination in the electronic data table. Either of a respective diagnostic code or a respective service labor code is identified having a correlation with more than one of either service diagnostic codes or service labor codes. At least one of a service repair procedure used to repair the vehicle or a respective service diagnostic code used to identify the fault is modified in response to analyzing the respective combinations. | 05-10-2012 |
20120200298 | Automotive Battery SOC Estimation Based on Voltage Decay - A method is provided for determining a state-of-charge of a battery for a vehicle. The vehicle is in a charging state when the engine is operating and a non-charging state when the engine is not operating. A first battery voltage is measured at a first predetermined time period after battery charging is discontinued in the non-charging state. A first temperature of the battery is measured that coincides with the first battery voltage. A second battery voltage is measured at a second predetermined time. The second predetermined time is greater than the first predetermined time. A second temperature of the battery is measured that coincides with the second battery voltage. An average temperature is calculated based on the first temperature measurement and the second temperature measurement. A fixed time constant is determined based on the average temperature. An open circuit voltage is estimated as a function of the first voltage measurement, the second voltage measurement, and the fixed time constant. A state-of-charge of the battery is determined based on the estimated open circuit voltage. | 08-09-2012 |
20120259570 | ALTERNATOR SPEED ESTIMATION USING SPECTRUM ANALYSIS - A system and method for determining the speed of an alternator, for example, a vehicle alternator. The method includes measuring the current or voltage of a vehicle battery for a predetermined period of time, and then notch filtering the measured current or voltage signal to remove known harmonics. A limited data point Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) spectrum analysis operation is performed to identify the frequency peaks in the filtered signal, where the highest peak represents a ripple current on the DC alternator signal. The highest peak in the FFT signal is identified, and an interpolation process is performed between that peak and an adjacent peak in the data to identify the actual frequency of the ripple current. The ripple current is then converted to the speed of the alternator. | 10-11-2012 |
20120303348 | SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR FAULT-ISOLATION AND FAULT-MITIGATION BASED ON NETWORK MODELING - A system and method for identifying a monitoring point in an electrical and electronic system (EES) in a vehicle. The method includes defining a network model of the EES where potential monitoring point locations in the model are identified as targets, such as nodes. The method then computes a betweenness centrality metric for each target in the model as a summation of a ratio of a total number of shortest paths between each pair of targets and a number of shortest paths that pass through the target whose betweenness centrality metric is being determined. The method identifies which of the betweenness centrality metrics are greater than a threshold that defines a minimum acceptable metric and determines which of those targets meets a predetermined model coverage. The monitoring point is selected as the target that best satisfies the minimum metric and the desired coverage. | 11-29-2012 |
20120306422 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THERMALLY MONITORING A PERMANENT MAGNET ELECTRIC MOTOR - A method for determining a temperature of an electric motor including stator windings includes injecting an AC current into a D-axis current of a stator winding at a frequency that is synchronized with a control frequency of the electric motor, determining a DC-phase current, determining a resistance of the stator winding corresponding to the DC-phase current and an applied voltage, and determining a temperature of the electric motor as a function of the resistance of the stator winding. | 12-06-2012 |
20120319722 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ALTERNATOR STATOR TURN-TO-TURN SHORT DETECTION - A method for detecting whether the stator in a vehicle alternator has a turn-to-turn short circuit. The method includes determining an output current or voltage signal of the alternator, where the output current or voltage signal includes a ripple current frequency as a result of an AC-to-DC conversion. The method determines the speed of the alternator and a current output of the alternator. The method then determines the ripple current frequency of the alternator from the alternator speed, and determines a winding frequency from the ripple current frequency. The method performs an FFT analysis on the voltage and current signal, determines an amplitude of the winding frequency and compares the amplitude of the winding frequency to a predetermined amplitude, where if the difference exceeds a predetermined threshold, a turn-to-turn short circuit is likely occurring. | 12-20-2012 |
20130158755 | OPTIMIZING SYSTEM PERFORMANCE USING STATE OF HEALTH INFORMATION - A method for optimizing performance of a system includes determining, via a controller, a state of health (SOH) for each of a plurality of components of the system, and determining a state of function (SOF) of the system using the SOH of each component. The method includes estimating the remaining useful life (RUL) of the system using the system SOF, selecting a cost-optimal control strategy for the system using a costing model, and dynamically, i.e., in real time, executing the selected strategy to extend the estimated RUL. The method may include comparing the selected cost-optimal strategy to a calibrated performance threshold, and executing the selected strategy only when the selected strategy exceeds the threshold. A system includes first and second components and a controller. The controller dynamically executes the above method with respect to the components, which may be a traction motor and battery in one possible embodiment. | 06-20-2013 |
20130184929 | Co-Operative On-Board and Off-Board Component and System Diagnosis and Prognosis - A cooperative diagnostic and prognosis system for generating a prognosis of at least one component in a vehicle. An in-vehicle diagnostic unit determines a diagnostic signature of the component each time an occurrence of a condition is triggered and transmits the diagnostic signature to an off-board diagnostic unit. The off-vehicle diagnostic unit determines a SOH of the component and a rate-of-change in the SOH of the component. The off-vehicle diagnostic unit determines whether the rate-of-change in the SOH is greater than a threshold. The off-vehicle diagnostic unit requests additional information from the vehicle in response to the rate-of-change in the SOH being greater than the threshold. The additional information relating to operating parameter data associated with the component. The off-vehicle diagnostic unit receives the requested information and predicts a time-to-failure of the component. | 07-18-2013 |
20130231826 | VEHICLE HEALTH PROGNOSIS - A method includes collecting state of health (SOH) data and usage data from a plurality of vehicles. A peer group is identified among the vehicles. A vehicle health prognosis is generated for each vehicle of the peer based on the collected SOH and usage data. The vehicles of the peer group are ranked based on the generated vehicle health prognosis and the rank is reported to an output device that is associated with each vehicle or with a user of each vehicle. If evaluation of the ranking indicates that the health prognosis of a vehicle of the peer group is improvable by modifying vehicle usage, an alert is issued to a user of that vehicle. | 09-05-2013 |
20130262067 | COLLABORATIVE VEHICLE HEALTH MODEL - A method includes collecting vehicle health data from a plurality of vehicles. A peer group is identified among the plurality of vehicles. The collected vehicle health data from the peer group into a collaborative vehicle health model, the collaborative vehicle health model being applicable to a current vehicle to predict a state of at least a component of the current vehicle. | 10-03-2013 |
20130325203 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR MONITORING A VEHICLE FOR FAULTS - Methods and systems are provided for monitoring a vehicle. In one embodiment, the method includes, but is not limited to, receiving traffic data from a vehicle communication bus. The method further includes, but is not limited to, identifying, by a processor, net-motifs from the traffic data. The method still further includes, but is not limited to, detecting a mode of components of the vehicle based on the net-motifs. | 12-05-2013 |
20140142800 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR STATE OF HEALTH ESTIMATION OF OBJECT SENSING FUSION SYSTEM - A method and system for estimating the state of health of an object sensing fusion system. Target data from a vision system and a radar system, which are used by an object sensing fusion system, are also stored in a context queue. The context queue maintains the vision and radar target data for a sequence of many frames covering a sliding window of time. The target data from the context queue are used to compute matching scores, which are indicative of how well vision targets correlate with radar targets, and vice versa. The matching scores are computed within individual frames of vision and radar data, and across a sequence of multiple frames. The matching scores are used to assess the state of health of the object sensing fusion system. If the fusion system state of health is below a certain threshold, one or more faulty sensors are identified. | 05-22-2014 |
20140149801 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ISOLATING A FAULT IN A CONTROLLER AREA NETWORK - A controller area network (CAN) has a plurality of CAN elements including a communication bus and controllers. A method for monitoring the CAN includes identifying each of the controllers as one of an active controller and an inactive controller. A fault-active controller isolation process is executed to detect and isolate presence of a fault-active controller. A fault isolation process can be executed to detect and isolate presence of one of a wire open fault, a wire short fault and a controller fault when one of the controllers is identified as an inactive controller. Presence of a fault associated with a persistent bus disturbance in the CAN is detected when a bus error count is greater than a predetermined threshold continuously for a predetermined period of time. | 05-29-2014 |
20150082096 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR FAULT DETECTION N A CONTROLLER AREA NETWORK - A controller area network (CAN) has a plurality of CAN elements including a communication bus and a plurality of controllers. A method for monitoring the CAN includes detecting occurrences of a first short-lived fault and a second short-lived fault within a predefined time window. A first fault set including at least one inactive controller associated with the first short-lived fault and a second fault set including at least one inactive controller associated with the second short-lived fault are identified. An intermittent fault is located in the CAN based upon the first and second fault sets. | 03-19-2015 |