A Stand-Alone Charging Management System to Improve Fuel Economy, Based on an Algorithm of Estimating Vehicle Motion

Increased interest in global warming issues requires rapid improvements in reduction of CO2 emissions. The automotive industry is placing high importance on improving fuel economy performance across their entire product lines. Charging Management System is a necessary element towards fuel economy improvement.

Many of today's charging management systems perform at least two important functions: improving efficiency based on vehicle motion, and detecting battery state of charge. These systems become more complicated as more components (i.e. generators, current sensors and ECU) and software are added. Therefore, it is difficult to develop charging management systems for an entire product line and difficult to retrofit the system for vehicles already in production.

A stand-alone charging management system solves these issues. This system is independent of the other vehicle systems. The software for improving fuel economy is installed in the generator or current sensor. These components can be connected through digital communication to gather information from each other, and be retrofitted to the vehicle. A stand-alone charging management system controls regeneration during deceleration. This system estimates vehicle motion by alternator speed.