US 12,466,291 B1
Multi-battery charging station which provides battery-specific charging parameters
Lewis Romeo Hom, Mountain View, CA (US); Carlos Cardona, Mountain View, CA (US); and Geoffrey Alan Long, Montara, CA (US)
Assigned to Wisk Aero LLC, Mountain View, CA (US)
Filed by Wisk Aero LLC, Mountain View, CA (US)
Filed on Aug. 23, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/893,527.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/236,027, filed on Aug. 23, 2021.
Int. Cl. B60L 58/18 (2019.01); B60L 53/22 (2019.01); B60L 53/62 (2019.01); B60L 58/12 (2019.01); G01R 31/396 (2019.01); H02J 7/00 (2006.01)
CPC B60L 58/18 (2019.02) [B60L 53/22 (2019.02); B60L 53/62 (2019.02); B60L 58/12 (2019.02); G01R 31/396 (2019.01); H02J 7/0013 (2013.01); B60L 2200/10 (2013.01)] 14 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system comprising:
an aircraft including:
one or more propulsion systems;
a plurality of battery submodules, where each of the plurality of battery submodules is electrically coupled to one or more of the one or more propulsion systems; and
one or more battery monitoring systems, each of which is configured to collect one or more battery metrics for a respective battery submodule of the plurality of battery submodules;
a charger configured to provide electric power the plurality of battery submodules; and
a charger interface coupled to the aircraft and the charger, the charger interface including:
a processor; and
a memory coupled with the processor, wherein the memory is configured to provide the processor with instructions which when executed cause the processor to:
receive, from each of the one or more battery monitoring systems, the one or more battery metrics for the respective battery submodule of the plurality of battery submodules;
determine, for each of the plurality of battery submodules, a set of one or more custom charging parameters for the battery submodule based on the one or more battery metrics for the battery submodule;
determine a total charging power based on a plurality of sets of one or more custom charging parameters, where each set of one or more custom charging parameters corresponds to a respective battery submodule of the plurality of battery submodules;
operate the charger to provide the total charging power to a plurality of power converters;
operate the plurality of power converters to distribute the total charging power to one or more of the plurality of battery submodules according to the plurality of sets of one or more custom charging parameters;
receive, from each of the one or more battery monitoring systems, one or more updated battery metrics for the respective battery submodule of the plurality of battery submodules;
determine, for each of the plurality of battery submodules, an updated set of one or more custom charging parameters for the battery submodule based on the one or more updated battery metrics for the battery submodule;
determine an updated total charging power based on the updated sets of one or more custom charging parameters:
operate the charger to provide the updated total charging power; and
operate the plurality of power converters to distribute the updated total charging power to the plurality of battery submodules according to the updated sets of one or more custom charging parameters.