Non-contact charging system
AssigneeHonda Motor Co., Ltd.
InventorYu Watanabe
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Power transmission to a power reception unit that is performed by a power transmission unit and, in turn, non-contact charging of a battery mounted on a vehicle are suspended on the condition that the existence of a foreign object is detected around the power transmission unit. A designated period that is a suspension period of power transmission performed by the power transmission unit is set to vary in accordance with the type of a foreign object, that is, in the present embodiment, depending on whether a foreign object is a metal piece or an object containing metal (first foreign object) or a living body (second foreign object).
Claims10
A non-contact charging system comprising:
- a power transmission unit that transmits power in a non-contact manner to a power reception unit mounted on a vehicle in order to charge a battery mounted on the vehicle;
- a charging control device that controls an amount of power transmitted by the power transmission unit;
- and
- a foreign-object detector that detects an existence of a foreign object existing around the power transmission unit and a type of the foreign object,
- wherein, on a condition that the foreign-object detector detects the existence and the type of the foreign object when the power transmission unit transmits power to the power reception unit, the charging control device suspends power transmission performed by the power transmission unit for a designated period that varies in accordance with the type of the foreign object.
A non-contact charging method of a non-contact charging system which comprises a power transmission unit that transmits power in a non-contact manner to a power reception unit mounted on a vehicle in order to charge a battery mounted on the vehicle,
- the method comprising the steps of:
- detecting, by a foreign-object detector, an existence of a foreign object existing around the power transmission unit and a type of the foreign object,
- wherein on a condition that the existence and the type of the foreign object are detected when the power transmission unit transmits power to the power reception unit, suspending, by a computer, power transmission performed by the power transmission unit for a designated period that varies in accordance with the type of the foreign object.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.