JP3701755B2 - Battery management method - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a battery management method, and more particularly to a battery management method in an automatic battery exchange station for replacing a discharge battery of an electric transport vehicle with a charging battery.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Electric transport vehicles that use a chargeable / dischargeable battery (storage battery) as an energy source are used for transporting materials in factories, etc., but such motorized transport vehicles can run according to the capacity of the loaded battery. Therefore, for example, the remaining charge level is constantly monitored with voltage, and when the remaining charge level drops to a certain value, recharging is performed, or the battery is replaced with a precharged battery. I try to continue.
[0003]
On the other hand, the battery deteriorates as it is repeatedly charged and discharged, the charge capacity decreases, and the time that can be traveled with a single charge is shortened. However, in this case, the battery must be replaced frequently, so the work efficiency is improved. descend. Therefore, it is desirable to renew the battery by quantitatively setting the service life.
[0004]
As a method for determining such a battery renewal time, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-178406 discloses that the operating time is accumulated by a timer provided in the transport vehicle from the time when the charging battery is loaded on the transport vehicle, and the battery voltage of the transport vehicle is determined. A technique has been proposed in which it is determined that the battery has reached the end of its life when the measured value of the timer at the time when it falls below the predetermined value is shorter than the predetermined value.
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, according to the above-described conventional configuration, for example, when a battery that is not fully charged is loaded for some reason, the discharge time is shortened even if there is no problem with the battery itself. It may be judged as the end.
[0006]
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved battery management method that eliminates the drawbacks of the prior art and can determine the end of life more appropriately.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve such an object, in the present invention, an identification unit for identifying an individual code assigned to each battery, and a charging time for integrating the charging time for each battery identified by the identification unit. It has integration means and charge number integration means for integrating the number of charges for each battery identified by the identification means, and monitors the charge time for each battery, and the time is smaller than a predetermined value. The battery that is detected to have exceeded the predetermined number of times is judged to have reached the end of its life. According to this, the shortening of the time required for full charge is a criterion for determining the end of life, and each battery is judged in a plurality of charging times.
[0008]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to a schematic configuration of a transport vehicle to which the present invention shown in FIG. 1 is applied and a schematic configuration of a battery exchange station shown in FIG.
[0009]
The transport vehicle to which the present invention is applied constantly monitors the charge amount of the battery 2 mounted on the transport vehicle 1 and drives a motor with a battery charge amount detector 3 that issues an alarm when the charge amount falls below a predetermined value. It comprises a drive device 4 to be controlled and a control device 5 that controls the operation of the transport vehicle 1 via the drive device 4 and controls the battery charge amount detector 3.
[0010]
The battery exchange station 6 includes a battery transfer device 7 for transferring the batteries 2 between the transport vehicle 1 and the battery exchange station 6, a battery identification device 8 for discriminating individual codes assigned to the individual batteries 2, and a battery 2, a battery transfer device 10 that transfers the battery 2 between the battery transfer device 7 and the battery charging device 9, a timer device 11 that measures the current time, and a transport vehicle 1 for the battery 2. A storage device 12 that stores the loading time, charging time, number of times of charging, and individual code, a notification device 13 that notifies the end of the battery life, and a control that controls the overall operation of the exchange station by linking these devices. Battery rack 1 for storing device 14 and fully charged battery 2 Constituted by the.
[0011]
Next, a processing flow of battery management according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
[0012]
When the charge amount detector 3 provided in the transport vehicle 1 detects that the remaining charge amount of the battery 2 loaded on the transport vehicle has dropped below a predetermined value during the travel of the transport vehicle 1 (step 1), control is performed. The device 5 controls the driving device 4 to guide the transport vehicle 1 to the battery exchange station 6 (step 2), and issues a battery 2 exchange request signal at the battery exchange station 6 (step 3).
[0013]
In the battery exchange station 6, the battery 2 loaded on the transport vehicle 1 is taken out by the battery transfer device 7 and moved to the battery exchange station 6 (step 4). When the discharge battery 2 is sent to the battery exchange station 6, the battery identification device 8 reads the individual code of the battery 2 and issues it to the controller 14 of the battery exchange station (step 5).
[0014]
The control device 14 reads the operation end time of the battery 2 with the timer device 11 and records it in the storage device 12 together with the individual code (step 6). Next, the control device 14 transfers the battery 2 to the battery charging device 9 by the battery transfer device 10 (step 7).
[0015]
The battery charger 2 starts charging the transferred battery 2 and simultaneously issues a charge start signal to the control device 14 (step 8). Receiving it, the control device 14 reads the charging start time with the timer device 11 and records the charging start time in the storage device 12 together with the individual code of the battery (step 9).
[0016]
The battery charger 9 detects the amount of charge of the battery 2 being charged, and issues a charge completion signal when the battery is fully charged (step 10). The charging completion time is recorded in the storage device 12 together with the individual code of the battery 2 that has been charged (step 11).
[0017]
Next, a required charging time is obtained from the charging start time and the charging completion time of the storage device 12, and this time is compared with a predetermined reference value for determining the end of the battery life (step 12). If the result is smaller than the reference value, the number of times of determining the life of the corresponding battery 2 in the storage device 12 is updated (step 13), and this number is compared with a predetermined reference value for determining the end of life of the battery. (Step 14). As a result, when the value is equal to or greater than the reference value, the use start date of the corresponding battery is read from the storage device 12, and it is determined whether or not the number of use days of the battery 2 is greater than the predetermined service life of the battery (step 15). . As a result, when it is determined that the predetermined period or more has elapsed, the operating time of the corresponding battery is read from the storage device 12, and it is determined whether or not the operating time of the battery is smaller than a predetermined value (step 16). ). Here, when the operating time is smaller than a predetermined value representing the useful life, it is determined that the battery has reached the end of its life, and the notification device 13 notifies the storage device 12 that the battery 2 is in an unusable state (step S1). 17).
[0018]
On the other hand, if it is determined in step 12 that the reference value is equal to or greater than the reference value, or if it is determined in step 14 that it is equal to or less than the reference value, it is stored in the battery rack 15 as the charged battery 2 (step 18). If it is determined in step 15 that the number of days elapsed in use is less than or equal to the predetermined period, and if it is determined in step 16 that the operating time is greater than the predetermined time value, the battery charger 9 is informed of an abnormality (step 19). ).
[0019]
On the other hand, the control device 14 searches the storage device 12 and selects a charging battery or a battery whose charging time exceeds a predetermined time even during charging (step 21), and selects the selected battery 2 as a battery transfer device. 10 is taken out from the battery rack 15 and transferred to the battery transfer device 7 (step 22). Next, the control device 14 loads the taken out charged battery 2 on the transport vehicle 1 by the battery transfer device 7 (step 23), reads the operation start time with the timer device 11, and individually loads the battery 2 loaded with the time. The code is recorded in the storage device 12 together with the code (step 24).
[0020]
Well, according to the conventional technology, the end of the battery life was determined by the operating time with one charge, so if the battery is loaded on the transport vehicle that has not reached full charge due to some reason Because the operating time of that time falls below the reference value, it could be misjudged as the end of life. According to the present invention, the start date of use, the charging time, the operating time, and the number of times of charging are recorded in the storage device together with the individual identification code for each battery, and the end of life for each battery is recorded. Since the determination is made multiple times, the end of battery life can be accurately grasped.
[0021]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, the shortening of the time required for full charge is a criterion for determining the end of life, and the end of life is determined for each battery in a plurality of charging times. A great effect can be achieved in optimizing the final determination.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a transport vehicle according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of a battery exchange station according to the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a part of a flowchart of a management program according to the present invention.
FIG. 4 shows the remaining part of the flowchart of the management program according to the present invention.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Carrier vehicle 2 Battery 3 Battery charge amount detector 4 Driving device 5 Control device 6 Battery exchange station 7 Battery transfer device 8 Battery identification device 9 Battery charging device 10 Battery transfer device 11 Timer device 12 Storage device 13 Notification device 14 Control device 15 Battery rack

Claims (1)

An identification means for identifying an individual code assigned to each battery;
Charging time integrating means for integrating the charging time for each battery identified by the identifying means;
Charge number integration means for integrating the number of charges for each individual battery identified by the identification means,
A battery management method comprising: monitoring a charging time for each battery, and determining that a battery in which the time is less than a predetermined value has exceeded a predetermined number of times has reached the end of its life.

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