JP7688980B2 - Charging System - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a charging system.

As an example of a device for charging a battery mounted on an electric vehicle such as a battery-powered forklift, there is a charging device disclosed in the following Patent Document 1. This document 1 discloses a charging device equipped with an indicator having six LED lamps (L1 to L6) that show the progress of battery charging. In addition, the following Patent Document 2 discloses a charger battery capacity display device that shows the degree of charging by changing the blinking patterns of multiple LED lamps in various modes.

JP 2006-6039 A JP 2014-85298 A

However, in the prior art disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2, the progress of battery charging is displayed by the lighting status of LED lamps provided on a display or display device, and thus little information can be grasped. As a result, a discrepancy may occur between the charging progress displayed by the LED lamps and the actual charging state. Furthermore, if a charging device equipped with such a display or the like is installed outdoors or if the positional relationship between the charging device and a lighting device is inappropriate, the lighting status of the LED lamps may be difficult to see depending on the angle of incidence of the light illuminating the display or the like. Therefore, even if the detailed charging level is displayed by the blinking patterns of multiple LED lamps, it is not necessarily possible to grasp this at the site where the electric vehicle is operating.

These problems can be solved, for example, by providing the charging device with an outdoor-compatible dot-matrix liquid crystal display panel instead of LED lamps, which allows for a variety of display formats such as letters and figures, and thus allows battery charging information and charging device information to be displayed on the panel. However, even if the charging device is equipped with such an LCD display panel, such information cannot be obtained unless the user goes to the site where the charging device is installed. Furthermore, even if a method is adopted in which the information obtained by visual confirmation by on-site workers is reported one by one using a communication means such as a mobile phone, this takes time and effort, and new problems such as high communication costs can arise.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and aims to provide a charging system that can easily obtain information about a battery and its charging device even remotely.

In order to achieve the above object, a charging system described in claim 1 of the claims includes a terminal device connected to an information and communication network and having a display unit and an input unit, a charging device provided at a location away from the terminal device and connected to the information and communication network via a wireless communication network, and a monitoring device provided on each of a plurality of electric vehicles and having a control unit that acquires individual information of a battery (hereinafter referred to as "battery individual information") and a communication unit that is capable of transmitting the individual information of the battery acquired by the control unit to the charging device via short-range wireless communication, wherein the charging device transmits the plurality of pieces of battery individual information and individual information of the charging device (hereinafter referred to as "charging device individual information") transmitted from the monitoring device of each of the plurality of electric vehicles to the terminal device, the terminal device displays the plurality of pieces of battery individual information and /or the charging device individual information transmitted from the charging device on the display unit, and transmits charging control information input from the input unit of the terminal device to the charging device via the wireless communication network, and the charging device performs charging control on the batteries mounted on each of the plurality of electric vehicles based on the charging control information transmitted from the terminal device. In addition, "and/or" is an expression in which either "and" or "or" can be selected (the same applies below) .

The invention of the charging system according to claim 1 includes a terminal device connected to an information and communication network and having a display unit and an input unit, a charging device provided at a location remote from the terminal device and connected to the information and communication network via a wireless communication network, and a monitoring device provided on each of the plurality of electric vehicles, having a control unit for acquiring battery individual information and a communication unit capable of transmitting the battery individual information acquired by the control unit to the charging device via short-range wireless communication. The charging device transmits the plurality of battery individual information and charging device individual information transmitted from the respective monitoring devices of the plurality of electric vehicles to the terminal device. In response to this, the terminal device displays the plurality of battery individual information and /or charging device individual information transmitted from the charging device on the display unit , and transmits charging control information input from the input unit of the terminal device to the charging device via the wireless communication network. The charging device performs charging control for the batteries mounted on each of the plurality of electric vehicles based on the charging control information transmitted from the terminal device. As a result, the charging device individual information of the charging device provided at a location remote from the terminal device and the battery individual information of the monitoring device are displayed on the display unit of the terminal device . The charging device performs charging control for the plurality of batteries by transmitting the charging control information from the terminal device to the charging device.

Furthermore, the charging system described in claim 2 of the claims has a technical feature in that, in the charging system described in claim 1 , the charging device determines whether or not there is an abnormality in the charging control based on the charging device individual information and the battery individual information received from the monitoring device, and if it is determined that there is an abnormality in the charging control in at least one of the charging device individual information and the battery individual information , it transmits information regarding the abnormality in the charging control to the terminal device, and the terminal device displays the information regarding the abnormality in the charging control received from the charging device on the display unit together with the charging device individual information and the plurality of battery individual information .

In the charging system according to the invention of claim 2 , the charging device judges whether or not there is an abnormality in the charging control based on the charging device individual information and the battery individual information received from the monitoring device. If it is judged that there is an abnormality in the charging control in at least one of the charging device individual information and the battery individual information , the charging device transmits information about the abnormality in the charging control to the terminal device. The terminal device, which receives the information, displays the information about the abnormality in the charging control together with the charging device individual information and the individual information of the plurality of batteries on the display unit. As a result, the display unit of the terminal device displays three types of information, the charging device individual information, the battery individual information, and the information about the abnormality in the charging control. Therefore, if there is an abnormality in the charging device or the battery, the information about the abnormality is displayed on the display output unit of the terminal device, so that the monitoring staff can determine at a glance which of the individual charging device information or the individual information of the plurality of batteries is abnormal.

Furthermore, the charging system described in claim 3 of the claims has a technical feature in that, in the charging system described in claim 1 or 2 , the terminal device displays the charging device individual information and the plurality of battery individual information transmitted from the charging device on the display unit, and is capable of changing charging control parameters in the charging device individual information and/or sensor operation parameters in the battery individual information displayed on the display unit .

In the charging system according to the present invention, the terminal device displays the charging device individual information and the multiple battery individual information transmitted from the charging device on a display unit, and is capable of changing the charging control parameters in the displayed charging device individual information and/or the sensor operation parameters in the battery individual information. This makes it possible for a charging device provided at a location distant from the terminal device to display the charging device individual information and the multiple battery individual information on the display unit, and to change the charging control parameters and sensor operation parameters therein by remote control.

In the invention of claim 1, the individual charging device information of a charging device installed at a location remote from the terminal device and the individual battery information of multiple batteries that are charged by the charging device are displayed on the display output unit of the terminal device, making it possible to grasp the individual charging device information and individual battery information without going to the site where the charging device is installed. In addition, it becomes possible to control the charging operation of the charging device for multiple batteries from the operation input unit of the terminal device. Therefore, information about the batteries and the charging device can be easily grasped even remotely.

In the invention of claim 3, if there is an abnormality in any battery or charging device, information about the abnormality is displayed on the display output unit of the terminal device, so that, for example, a person in charge of monitoring the operating status of the charging device, battery, etc. can know that an abnormality has occurred in the charging device or battery without looking at the individual charging device information or individual battery information displayed on the terminal device. Therefore, in addition to being able to easily grasp information about the battery and its charging device remotely, it is also possible to easily grasp remotely that an abnormality has occurred in any battery or charging device.

In the invention of claim 4, even if the charging device is installed at a location far from the terminal device, it is possible to remotely change the control parameters related to the charging operation and the operating parameters of the sensor related to obtaining individual battery information for the charging device and the monitoring device. Therefore, in addition to being able to easily grasp information about the battery and its charging device remotely, it is also possible to remotely change the control parameters of the charging device and the operating parameters of the sensor of the monitoring device.

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration example of a charging system according to first to third embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a charging device and the like that constitute the charging system according to the first to third embodiments. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a battery that can be charged by the charging system of the first to third embodiments and a battery management unit (BMU) that constitutes the system. 4 is a flowchart showing the flow of processes executed by the charging device of the charging system of the first embodiment, in which FIG. 4(A) shows the flow of main control process, and FIG. 4(B) shows the flow of reception control process. 5 is a flowchart showing the flow of the individual information collection process shown in FIG. 4(A). 5 is a flowchart showing the flow of the charge control process shown in FIG. 4(A). Fig. 7(A) is a flowchart showing the flow of the individual information acquisition process shown in Fig. 5. Fig. 7(B) is a flowchart showing the flow of the charging information acquisition process shown in Fig. 6. 5 is a flowchart showing a flow of a charging device control process executed by a monitoring terminal device of the charging system according to the first embodiment. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of display of individual information of the charging device and the battery displayed on the monitoring terminal device in the charging device control process of FIG. 8 . 10 is a flowchart showing a flow of a main control process executed by a charging device of a charging system according to a second embodiment of the present invention. 11 is a flowchart showing the flow of the individual information collection process shown in FIG. 10 . 11 is a flowchart showing the flow of the charge control process shown in FIG. 10 . 10 is a flowchart showing a flow of a charging device control process executed by a monitoring terminal device of the charging system according to the second embodiment. 14 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of display of individual information of the charging device and the battery displayed on the monitoring terminal device in the charging device control process of FIG. 13 . 15A and 15B are flowcharts showing the flow of processes executed by a charging device of a charging system according to a third embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. 15A shows the flow of a main control process, and FIG. 15B shows the flow of an individual information acquisition process. 16 is a flowchart showing the flow of the parameter update process shown in FIG. 15(A). 13 is a flowchart showing a flow of an update process executed by a BMU of the charging system according to the third embodiment. 13 is a flowchart showing a flow of a charging device control process executed by a monitoring terminal device of the charging system according to the third embodiment. 19 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of display of control parameters of the charging device and operation parameters of each sensor of the BMU displayed on the monitoring terminal device in the charging device control process of FIG. 18 .

Hereinafter, embodiments of the charging system of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[First embodiment]
1 to 3, in the charging system 2 according to the first embodiment, batteries 20a, 20b, and 20c (hereinafter referred to as "batteries 20a, etc.") mounted on a plurality of, for example, three battery-powered forklifts (hereinafter referred to as "forklifts") 10a, 10b, and 10c (hereinafter referred to as "forklifts 10a, etc.") are respectively charged by a charging device 50. In the first embodiment, the batteries 20a, etc. are monitored by BMUs 30a, 30b, and 30c (hereinafter referred to as "BMUs 30a, etc.") mounted on the forklifts 10a, etc., respectively.

The forklift 10a etc. is an example of an electric vehicle driven by power supplied from the battery 20a etc. housed in the battery storage chamber 11, and the electric vehicle of the first embodiment includes, for example, an automated guided vehicle (AGV), an electric cart, an electric wheelchair, etc. Hereinafter, the forklift 10a etc., the battery 20a etc., the BMU 30a etc. may be collectively referred to simply as the "forklift 10", the "battery 20", and the "BMU 30", respectively.

In the first embodiment, the information communication between the BMU 30a and the charging device 50 is configured to be performed via a wireless communication line 90a using short-range wireless communication, as described below. The charging device 50 is also configured to be able to communicate information with a monitoring terminal device 121 of a monitoring center 120 connected to the Internet 100 via a wireless communication line 90b (access point 110) using a wide-area wireless communication network. The charging device 50 and the monitoring center 120 are located at geographically separate locations. The Internet 100 is an example of a wide-area information communication line network that transmits data, and may be called a "cloud" in cloud computing. Instead of the Internet 100, a closed communication network provided by a communication carrier, a VPN (virtual private network or virtual dedicated line), a dedicated line, a public line network, etc. may be used.

The monitoring terminal device 121 included in the cloud (on the cloud) is, for example, a notebook type personal computer (PC) and has a display 123 as a display output unit and a keyboard 125 as an operation input unit. The monitoring terminal device 121 is connected to the Internet 100 via, for example, a line termination device 122 and an ISP (Internet service provider) (not shown). The monitoring terminal device 121 may have, as an operation input unit, a pointing device such as a mouse or a trackball, or a touch panel that allows input by touching with a touch pen, stylus, finger, etc. The monitoring terminal device 121 may be a desktop type or tablet type PC. The monitoring terminal device 121 is monitored and operated by a person M (hereinafter referred to as a "monitoring person") who visually checks the operating status of the battery 20a, etc. and the charging device 50.

<Configuration of charging device 50>
2, the charging device 50 converts three-phase AC power input from an AC power source AC into DC power suitable for the battery 20 and outputs the converted power. The charging device 50 is mainly composed of, for example, a rectifier 52, a voltage converter 53, a controller 54, a display 58, and communication units 59a, 59b, which are housed in a metal housing 51. The housing 51 is provided with, for example, an input terminal to which the three-phase AC power from the three-phase AC power source AC is input, an output terminal to which a charging device side cable 71 of a charging cable 70 described later is connected, and the like.

The rectifier 52 is a semiconductor module composed of a plurality of diodes capable of full-wave rectification of all phases (U-phase, V-phase, W-phase) of a three-phase 200V AC voltage supplied from a three-phase AC power source AC, and is connected to an input terminal provided in the housing 51 on the input side, and to a voltage converter 53 on the output side. In this first embodiment, the zero-cross detector 57, which will be described later, is also connected to the input side of the rectifier 52.

The voltage conversion unit 53 is a DC-DC converter that steps down the DC voltage output from the rectification unit 52, and is composed of, for example, a step-down chopper circuit made up of a semiconductor switching element and an inductor. The semiconductor switching element may be, for example, an IGBT (insulated gate bipolar transistor), and the output voltage is controlled by changing the switching frequency (period). On the output side of the voltage conversion unit 53, a smoothing capacitor 55 capable of removing switching noise and ripple components that may be included in the output voltage is provided in parallel with the output.

The control unit 54 is a controller that controls the output voltage and output current of the voltage conversion unit 53, and is, for example, a microcomputer module composed of an MPU, memory (RAM, ROM (EEPROM, etc.)), an input/output interface, etc. In this first embodiment, various sensors such as a zero-cross detection unit 57, voltage sensors 61, 63, current sensors 62, 64, an acceleration sensor 65, a temperature sensor 66, and a humidity sensor 67 are connected to the control unit 54, and information such as the input voltage, input current, output voltage, output current, vibration, temperature, and humidity output from these sensors is input.

That is, the various sensors that input this information to the control unit 54 include a zero-cross detection unit 57 that is connected between two predetermined phases of the three-phase AC voltage supplied from the three-phase AC power source AC and outputs timing information of the zero-cross point, as well as a voltage sensor 61, a current sensor 62, a voltage sensor 63, and a current sensor 64 that detect and output electrical information, and an acceleration sensor 65, a temperature sensor 66, and a humidity sensor 67 that detect and output environmental information. The zero-cross point is the point where the polarity of the AC voltage switches periodically.

More specifically, the voltage sensor 61 is connected in parallel to the input side of the voltage conversion unit 53 and outputs input voltage information, and the current sensor 62 is connected in series to the same input side and outputs input current information. The voltage sensor 63 is connected in parallel to the output side of the voltage conversion unit 53 and outputs output voltage information, and the current sensor 64 is connected in series to the same output side and outputs output current information. Furthermore, the acceleration sensor 65 is attached to the bottom or the like within the housing 51 and outputs vibration information within the device, and the temperature sensor 66 and humidity sensor 67 are attached to the side walls or the like within the housing 51 and output temperature information and humidity information within the device.

In the control unit 54, in addition to the zero-cross timing information, voltage, current, temperature information, etc. input from the zero-cross detection unit 57 and the voltage sensor 61, etc., in this first embodiment, the control unit 54 also controls the switching elements of the voltage conversion unit 53 to be turned on and off (switching control) in synchronization with the three-phase AC voltage based on the terminal voltage (pre-charge voltage VBb, charging voltage VBc) and terminal current (charging current IBC) of the battery 20 sent via the communication unit 59a from the BMU 30 that monitors the battery 20 to be charged. In other words, the output voltage is controlled by an inverter method. Note that instead of such a voltage conversion unit 53 with diverse control parameters and complex control, a transformer method using a transformer unit or the like with few control parameters and simple control may be adopted.

The display unit 58 is a display panel capable of displaying information related to the control of the charging device 50, and is connected to the control unit 54. The display unit 58 may be, for example, an LED display unit having a plurality of LEDs, or a liquid crystal display unit having a dot-matrix liquid crystal display panel. In the case of a liquid crystal display unit, it may also have a touch panel for operation. In the first embodiment, for example, the display unit 58 is used when displaying charging completion information, error information, and the like in the charging control process described below.

The communication unit 59a is a wireless unit capable of short-range wireless communication (e.g., compliant with wireless standards such as Bluetooth (registered trademark) and ZigBee (registered trademark)) capable of information communication with the BMU 30 via the wireless communication line 90a, and includes an antenna provided outside the housing 51. The communication unit 59b is a wireless unit capable of wide-area wireless communication (e.g., compliant with LPWA (Low Power Wide Area) such as SIGFOX (registered trademark), LoRa (registered trademark), and NB-IoT (Narrow Band-IoT), or wireless standards for wireless data communication lines using third-generation or fourth-generation mobile communication services provided by mobile communication carriers) capable of information communication with the cloud monitoring terminal device 121 via the wireless communication line 90b and the access point 110, and includes an antenna provided outside the housing 51.

In the first embodiment, the communication units 59a and 59b are connected to the control unit 54. The communication unit 59a is configured to receive charging information of the battery 20 sent from the BMU 30 via the wireless communication line 90a and output it to the control unit 54, and to transmit control information sent from the control unit 54 to the BMU 30 via the wireless communication line 90a. In addition, the communication unit 59b is configured to transmit information about the battery 20 (such as battery individual information) such as the charging state acquired from the BMU 30 and information about the charging device 50 (such as charging device individual information) via the wireless communication line 90b to the cloud monitoring terminal device 121, and to receive charging control information sent from the monitoring terminal device 121 via the wireless communication line 90b and output it to the control unit 54, as described below.

The charging device 50 configured in this manner outputs output power (output voltage, output current) to the battery 20 via a charging cable 70 attached to the housing 51. In other words, it supplies charging power (charging voltage, charging current) to the battery 20. Here, the configuration of the charging cable 70 used in the charging system 2 of the first embodiment will be described.

<Configuration of charging cable 70>
The charging cable 70 is composed of a charging device side cable 71 and a battery side cable 75. The charging device side cable 71 is a power cable connected to the charging device 50, and is composed of, for example, a cable main body 72, an input connector 73 connected to one end of the cable main body 72, and an output connector 74 connected to the other end. The input connector 73 on one end is configured to be electrically connectable to the output terminal of the charging device 50 and mechanically connectable to the periphery of the output terminal. The input connector 73 is also electrically connected to the output connector 74 on the other end via the cable main body 72.

The battery side cable 75 is a power cable connected to the battery 20, and is composed of, for example, a cable body 76, an output connector 78 connected to one end of the cable body 76, and an input connector 77 connected to the other end. The output connector 78 on one end is configured to be electrically connectable to the battery terminal of the battery 20 and mechanically connectable to the periphery of the battery terminal. The output connector 78 is also electrically connected to the input connector 77 on the other end via the cable body 76. The output connector 74 of the charging device side cable 71 and the input connector 77 of the battery side cable 75 are configured to be mechanically connectable by fitting the recess 74a and the protrusion 77a, and electrically connectable by a pin and a receptacle (not shown).

<Configuration of battery 20>
As shown in Figures 2 and 3, the battery 20 is accommodated in a battery storage chamber 11 provided, for example, below the driver's seat of the forklift 10. The sides and bottom of the battery storage chamber 11, except for the upper opening, are partitioned by walls 12, and the upper opening can be closed by the seat of the driver's seat functioning as a lid 13. In the first embodiment, the output connector 78 of the battery side cable 75 is always connected to the battery 20 of the forklift 10. That is, the battery side cable 75 is connected to the battery 20 even when not charging. Therefore, when not charging, that is, when the forklift 10 is in operation, the battery side cable 75 is accommodated together with the battery 20 in the accommodation space 11a of the battery storage chamber 11 closed by the seat.

The battery 20 is a battery pack mainly composed of a battery case 21 and a plurality of battery cells 23 housed within the battery case 21. In this first embodiment, the plurality of battery cells 23 are electrically connected in series and configured to be able to output a DC voltage of 48 V, for example. Some battery cells can output a DC voltage of 24 V. The rated capacity varies depending on the individual capacity of the battery cells or the number of parallel connections, and is, for example, 280 Ah or 450 Ah. These battery cells 23 are physically arranged in a matrix, for example.

In this first embodiment, the battery cell 23 may be a lead acid battery (hereinafter referred to as a "lead battery") or a lithium ion secondary battery (hereinafter referred to as a "lithium battery"). For example, if the battery cell 23 is an open type (non-sealed type) lead battery, it is necessary to appropriately replenish the electrolyte injected into the battery cell 23. For this reason, a liquid level sensor 38 capable of detecting the amount of electrolyte is provided in the battery cell 23 located near the center of the arrangement among the multiple battery cells 23. If the battery cell 23 is a sealed type lead battery or a lithium battery, there is no need to replenish the electrolyte, so the liquid level sensor 38 is not provided in the battery cell 23.

The battery case 21 is provided with a positive terminal 21a and a negative terminal 21b. The positive terminal 21a is connected to the anode terminal of the battery cell 23, and the negative terminal 21b is connected to the cathode terminal of the battery cell 23. These terminals 21a and 21b are covered with a cover of the output connector 78. In this first embodiment, the output connector 78 houses a voltage sensor 35 and a current sensor 36, which will be described later.

<Configuration of BMU 30>
3, the BMU 30 is composed of, for example, a housing 31, a control unit 32, a communication unit 33, and various sensors 35 to 38. The BMU 30 may also be called a Battery Management Unit (BMU). In the BMU 30, the housing 31 that houses the control unit 32 and the communication unit 33 is attached to the battery case 21 of the battery 20. The various sensors 35 to 38 are provided outside the housing 31, except for the temperature sensor 37.

The control unit 32 is configured, for example, by a one-chip microcomputer in which an MPU, memory (RAM, ROM (EEPROM, etc.)), input/output interface, etc. are built into the same module. The communication unit 33 is a short-range wireless module (for example, compliant with wireless standards such as Bluetooth (registered trademark) or ZigBee (registered trademark)) capable of wireless communication with the communication unit 59 of the charging device 50, and is equipped with an antenna. The control unit 32 and communication unit 33 are electrically connected, and the control unit 32 is configured to be able to communicate information with the control unit 54 of the charging device 50 via a wireless communication line 90.

The voltage sensor 35 is connected between the positive terminal 21a and the negative terminal 21b so that it can measure the terminal voltage of the battery 20. The current sensor 36 is connected between the anode terminal of the battery cell group 23 and the positive terminal 21a (or in series with the positive terminal 21a) so that it can measure the current (terminal current) flowing through the positive terminal 21a. As described above, these sensors 35 and 36 are housed in the cover of the output connector 78.

The temperature sensor 37 is provided on the wall of the battery case 21 exposed within the housing 31 so that it can directly or indirectly measure the surface temperature of the battery cell 23 and the temperature of the electrolyte. The fluid level sensor 38 is provided within the battery cell 23 of the battery 20 as described above. Furthermore, in this first embodiment, a temperature sensor 81 is provided within the accommodation space 11a and a temperature sensor 83 is provided outside the accommodation space 11a to measure the temperature inside and outside the battery accommodation chamber 11.

These sensors 35-38, 81, 83 all have their outputs connected to the control unit 32, and are configured so that voltage information, current information, temperature information, fluid volume information, and the like can be input to the control unit 32. Although not shown in FIG. 3, there may be humidity sensors that measure the humidity inside the battery storage chamber 11 (storage space 11a) and outside the battery storage chamber 11. If these humidity sensors are provided, their outputs are connected to the control unit 32, and the humidity information can be input to the control unit 32.

The BMU 30a etc. configured in this manner acquires information (such as individual battery information) about the battery 20a etc., such as the charging state, discharging state, and maintenance state, and transmits it to the outside. The BMU 30a etc. is also configured to be able to transmit an ID (identifier) (hereinafter referred to as "battery ID") assigned to the battery 20a etc. or to itself, for example, to the charging device 50 etc. at regular intervals. Note that while the above-mentioned BMU 30a etc. is configured to be provided outside the battery 20a etc., the BMU 30a etc. may also be configured to be incorporated into the battery 20a etc., for example.

By configuring the charging device 50 and the monitoring terminal device 121 in this way as hardware, the following control processes are carried out between the two. First, the control process executed by the control unit 54 of the charging device 50 will be explained based on Figure 4(A). Figure 4(A) shows the flow of the main control process, and Figure 4(B) shows the flow of the reception control process for receiving charging control information and the like from the monitoring terminal device 121. These control processes are realized by the MPU of the control unit 54 executing control programs stored in the memory (ROM) of the control unit 54 of the charging device 50.

<Main Control Processing of the Charging Device 50>
The control program for realizing the main control process is started by the control unit 54 immediately after a charging switch (not shown) of the charging device 50 is turned on, and when a series of information processing is completed, the control program is restarted until the switch is turned off. The control program for realizing the reception control process is executed to receive charging control information and the like transmitted by the monitoring terminal device 121. Therefore, for example, the control program is started immediately after the individual information collection process (S300) of the main control process is completed, and is repeatedly executed at predetermined time intervals (for example, every 100 milliseconds).

As shown in FIG. 4(A), in the main control process, a predetermined initialization process is first performed in step S100. In this process, for example, the work area for this process in the memory (RAM) of the control unit 54 is cleared, and the information added to the ID list stored in the memory is cleared, as described below. In addition, control commands for initial setting are sent to the voltage conversion unit 53, the display unit 58, and the communication units 59a and 59b.

In the next step S101, a status information acquisition process is performed. In this process, the control unit 54 acquires status information (charging device individual information) such as input/output voltages and input/output currents output from the aforementioned sensors 61 to 67 equipped in the charging device 50, and stores the information in memory. In this first embodiment, the status information (charging device individual information) of the charging device 50 is, for example, the following (1) to (7).

(1) Input voltage VCi (input voltage of voltage conversion unit 53)
(2) Input current ICi (input current of voltage conversion unit 53)
(3) Output voltage VCo (output voltage of voltage conversion unit 53)
(4) Output current ICo (output current of voltage conversion unit 53)
(5) Internal vibration GCi (vibration within the housing 51)
(6) Temperature inside the device TCi (temperature inside the housing 51)
(7) Humidity inside the device HCi (humidity inside the housing 51)

In this first embodiment, the input voltage VCi is measured by a voltage sensor 61, the input current ICi is measured by a current sensor 62, the output voltage VCo is measured by a voltage sensor 63, the output current ICo is measured by a current sensor 64, the internal device vibration GCi is measured by an acceleration sensor 65, the internal device temperature TCi is measured by a temperature sensor 66, and the internal device humidity HCi is measured by a humidity sensor 67.

Of the status information of the charging device 50, (1) to (4) input voltage VCi, input current ICi, output voltage VCo, and output current ICo indicate the electrical state of the charging device 50 before the charging operation, and (5) to (7) internal device vibration GCi, internal device temperature TCi, and internal device humidity HCi indicate the environmental state before the charging operation of the charging device 50 begins. Note that if the status information of (1) to (7) is to be acquired during the charging operation of the charging device 50 or after the charging operation has stopped, a processing step similar to step S101 must be added, for example, to the charging control process (FIG. 6; S300) described later. This will be described in the explanation of the charging control process.

In the next step S200, individual information collection processing is performed. In this processing, individual information of each battery 20a etc. that the charging device 50 plans to charge is obtained from the BMU 30a etc., and status information of the charging device 50 is obtained from the voltage sensor 61 etc., and this is sent to the monitoring terminal device 121 of the monitoring center 120 before starting the charging control processing. This makes it possible to display the individual information of the battery 20a etc. (individual battery information) and the status information of the charging device 50 (individual charging device information) on the display 123 of the monitoring terminal device 121.

As a result, the monitoring officer M at the monitoring center 120 can control the charging device 50 by operating the monitoring terminal device 121, as described below, so as to selectively charge, for example, the battery 20a, etc. Note that the flow of this individual information collection process is illustrated as a subroutine in Figure 5, so it will be described later with reference to Figure 5.

In the next step S300, charging control processing is performed. In this processing, the charging device 50 performs charging control for the battery 20a, etc., based on charging control information sent from the monitoring terminal device 121 by the operation of the monitoring person M, and the flow of this processing is shown in FIG. 6 as a subroutine. Therefore, this processing will also be explained later with reference to FIG. 6.

<Reception control process of charging device 50>
The reception control process shown in Fig. 4B is performed so that the charging device 50 receives the charging control information and the like sent from the monitoring terminal device 121 of the monitoring center 120. As described above, information communication between the charging device 50 and the monitoring terminal device 121 is performed by the communication unit 59b of the charging device 50, so that the charging control information sent from the monitoring terminal device 121 is acquired by the charging control information reception process in step S901. Then, the received (acquired) charging control information is stored (stored) in the memory (reception buffer) of the control unit 54 by the charging control information storage process in the next step S903. The reception buffer is used, for example, in a first-in, first-out (FIFO) manner, and is deleted when read out.

The charging control information stored in the receiving buffer of the memory in this manner is used in the charging control process (FIG. 6) described below. The receiving control process consisting of the two steps S901 and S903 is repeatedly executed in parallel with the charging control process (FIG. 6) at least while the charging control process is being executed. This makes it possible to receive charging control information that is appropriately transmitted from the monitoring terminal device 121 in accordance with the operation of the monitoring personnel M.

<Individual information collection process of charging device 50>
Next, the flow of the individual information collection process shown in Fig. 5 will be described. In the individual information collection process (S200), first, a battery ID reception process is performed in step S201. As described above, the battery ID is transmitted from the BMU 30a of the forklift 10a, etc., which is waiting in a chargeable state, via the wireless communication line 90a. Therefore, in this process, the battery ID transmitted from the BMU 30a, etc., is received to identify the battery 20a, etc., which is to be charged and is connected to the charging device 50.

In the next step S203, a process is performed to determine whether the battery ID received in step S201 is an ID (already registered ID) registered in the charging device 50. For example, an ID list that registers the battery IDs of the battery 20a etc. or its BMU 30a etc. that can be charged by the charging device 50 is stored in the memory of the control unit 54 of the charging device 50. Therefore, when the battery ID previously received is compared with this ID list and is an already registered ID (S203; Yes), the battery 20a etc. can be charged by the charging device 50, and the process proceeds to the next step S205.

On the other hand, if the battery ID received earlier is not a registered ID (S203; No), the battery 20a etc. cannot be charged by the charging device 50 for a specified reason, and the process proceeds to a determination process (S207) described below. The specified reason may be when the battery types are incompatible between the charging device 50 and the battery 20a etc. (e.g., when the battery 20a etc. is a lithium battery for a charging device 50 designed for lead batteries) or when the battery specifications are incompatible (e.g., when the output voltage of the charging device 50 does not match the nominal voltage of the battery 20a etc.).

In step S205 (S400), individual information acquisition processing is performed. This processing acquires individual battery information of the battery 20a, etc. that the charging device 50 may charge from the BMU 30a, etc., and the flow of this processing is shown in FIG. 7(A) as a subroutine.

As shown in FIG. 7A, in the individual information acquisition process (S400), first, in step S401, a process of inquiring about battery information is performed on the BMU 30a, etc. For example, a battery ID that identifies the battery 20a, etc. to be inquired about and a battery information inquiry command are transmitted from the communication unit 59a of the charging device 50 to the communication unit 33 of the BMU 30a, etc. via the wireless communication line 90a. As a result, the BMU 30a, etc. that receives the inquiry command acquires battery information of the battery 20a, etc. at the time of the inquiry or within the last few seconds before and after the inquiry from the various sensors 35 to 38, etc. described above, and transmits it to the charging device 50 as individual battery information of the battery 20a, etc. In this case, the battery information is information obtained from the voltage sensor 35, etc. before the start of charging, and is, for example, the following (11) to (15).

(11) Pre-charge voltage VBb (terminal voltage of battery 20a, etc.)
(12) Pre-charge electrolyte volume LRb (amount of electrolyte in battery 20a, etc.)
(13) Pre-charge battery temperature TBb (temperature of battery 20a, etc.)
(14) Pre-charging room temperature TRb (temperature inside the battery storage chamber 11)
(15) Pre-charging outdoor temperature TXb (temperature outside the battery housing chamber 11)

In this first embodiment, the pre-charge voltage VBb is measured by the voltage sensor 35, the pre-charge fluid volume LRb is measured by the fluid volume sensor 38, the pre-charge battery temperature TBb is measured by the temperature sensor 37, the pre-charge indoor temperature TRb is measured by the temperature sensor 81, and the pre-charge outdoor temperature TXb is measured by the temperature sensor 83.

Of these battery information, (11) to (13) pre-charge voltage VBb, pre-charge fluid volume LRb, and pre-charge battery temperature TBb are static information that grasps the state of the battery 20a, etc. before charging, and (14) and (15) pre-charge indoor temperature TRb and pre-charge outdoor temperature TXb are ambient environment information for the battery 20a, etc. Note that although the temperatures in (14) and (15) are not information about the battery 20 itself, they affect the charging conditions for the battery 20a, etc. For this reason, in this first embodiment, (14) and (15) are also included in the battery information.

The BMU 30a etc. stores the following history information (16) to (19) in the memory of the control unit 32. Therefore, in this first embodiment, when the BMU 30a etc. receives a query command, it also transmits this history information stored in the memory of the control unit 32 to the charging device 50 as battery information.

(16) Number of uses NTu (cumulative number of uses of the battery 20a, etc.)
(17) Usage time TMu (cumulative usage time of the battery 20a, etc.)
(18) Number of charging times NTc (cumulative number of charging times of the battery 20a, etc.)
(19) Charging time TMc (cumulative charging time of the battery 20a, etc.)

The number of uses NTu is the total number of times the battery 20a, etc. has been used. For example, the control unit 32 of the BMU 30a, etc. counts a unit period from the start of operation of the forklift 10a, etc. (key switch on) to the end of operation (key switch off) as one use. The control unit 32 obtains key switch on/off information, for example, from the on-board LAN (e.g., CAN (Controller Area Network)) of the forklift 10a, etc. The usage time TMu is the total time the battery 20a, etc. has been used. It is the total time required for the unit period from the start of operation of the forklift 10a, etc. to the end of operation for all unit periods.

The number of charging times NTc is the total number of times the battery 20a, etc. has been charged up to now. The charging time TMc is the total time the battery 20a, etc. has been charged up to now. For example, the control unit 32 can determine the discharging or charging of the battery 20a, etc. based on the direction (polarity) of the terminal current detected by the current sensor 36. Therefore, by monitoring the terminal current of the battery 20a, etc., the control unit 32 measures the time from the start to the end of charging (charging time) and counts the number of times charging has been performed from the start to the end, that is, the number of times charging has been performed.

When the battery information (11) to (19) above is received by the communication unit 59a of the charging device 50 in the battery information reception process of step S403, the control unit 54 of the charging device 50 acquires the battery information and stores it in memory by the battery information storage process of step S405. The information is stored in the memory of the control unit 54 in association with the battery ID of the battery 20a, etc.

In the next step S407, a specification information reading process is performed. The memory of the control unit 54 stores an ID list in which the battery IDs of the batteries 20a etc. that can be charged by the charging device 50 are registered, and this ID list stores specification information of the batteries 20a etc., such as the type of the batteries 20a etc., the nominal voltage, the rated capacity, etc. linked to the battery ID of the batteries 20a etc. Therefore, in this process, the information stored in the memory of the control unit 54, such as the type of the batteries 20a etc., the nominal voltage, the rated capacity, etc., is also read from the memory as individual battery information of the batteries 20a etc.

(20) Battery type
(21) Nominal voltage
(22) Rated capacity

When the specification information reading process of step S407 is completed, the process returns to the charging control process of FIG. 5, and a process of determining whether or not the battery individual information of all batteries 20a, etc. has been acquired is performed in step S207. That is, a determination is made as to whether or not the battery individual information of all batteries 20a, etc. has been collected (stored) in the charging device 50. Then, if it is determined that the battery individual information of all batteries 20a, etc. has not been acquired (S207; No), there are batteries 20a, etc. for which battery individual information has not been acquired, so the process returns to step S201, and the battery ID reception process, etc. is performed again.

In contrast, if it is determined that the individual battery information of all batteries 20a, etc. has been acquired (stored in the charging device 50) (S207; Yes), this means that the individual battery information of all batteries 20a, etc. has been acquired, and the process proceeds to the next step S209. Note that if the individual battery information of all batteries 20a, etc. cannot be acquired even after a predetermined period of time has elapsed, a timeout process may be performed to forcibly transition the process to step 209.

In the next step S209, an individual information transmission process is performed. In this process, the individual information (above (11) to (22)) of the battery 20a etc. and the battery ID (or ID list) of the battery 20a etc. acquired by the individual information acquisition process (S205) as information about the battery 20a etc. (battery individual information etc.), and the status information (above (1) to (7)) of the battery 50 acquired by the status information acquisition process (S101) and the charging device ID associated with and assigned to the charging device 50 as information about the charging device 50 (charging device individual information etc.) are transmitted to the monitoring terminal device 121 by the communication unit 59b via the wireless communication line 90b.

As a result, the individual information of all batteries 20a etc., the battery IDs or ID lists linked to these, the status information of the charging device 50 (individual charging device information) and its charging device ID are all sent together at once to the monitoring terminal device 121. Therefore, the monitoring terminal device 121 can acquire (receive) the individual information of the batteries 20a etc. all at once in the charging device control process described below. When this series of individual information collection processes is completed, the process returns to the main control process in Figure 4 (A).

<Charging control process of charging device 50>
Next, the flow of the charging control process shown in Fig. 6 will be described. As shown in Fig. 6, in the charging control process (S300), first, a charging control information acquisition process is performed in step S301 to acquire charging control information. As will be described later, in the monitoring terminal device 121, the charging control information (chargeable information and non-chargeable information) input by the monitoring person M in the charging device control process (Fig. 8) is transmitted to the charging device 50.

The chargeable information and non-chargeable information transmitted from the monitoring terminal device 121 are received by the communication unit 59b through the above-mentioned reception control process (FIG. 4(B)) (FIG. 4(B); S901), and then stored in the reception buffer, which is the memory of the control unit 54 (FIG. 4(B); S903). Therefore, in the charge control information acquisition process in step S301, the chargeable information, etc. is read and acquired from the memory (reception buffer) of the control unit 54. Once the chargeable information, etc. is read in this process, it is subsequently deleted from the memory (reception buffer) of the control unit 54.

In the next step S302, a process is performed to determine whether or not a battery 20a, etc. is connected to the charging device 50. If it is determined that a battery 20a, etc. is connected (S302; connected), a battery identification process is performed in the following step S303. In contrast, if it is determined that a battery 20a, etc. is not connected (S302; not connected), this determination process is repeated until a battery 20a, etc. is connected to the charging device 50.

For example, when the battery 20a or the like is connected to the charging device 50 via the charging cable 70, the voltage sensor 63 of the charging device 50 detects the battery voltage via the charging cable 70. Therefore, in the determination process of step S302, the voltage sensor 63 detects the presence or absence of such battery voltage to determine whether the battery 20a or the like is connected.

In step S303, the battery 20a etc. connected to the charging device 50 is identified. For example, before charging starts, an applied voltage or current that changes over time in a predetermined pattern is applied to the battery 20a etc., and if the battery terminal voltage or terminal current sent from the BMU 30a etc. of the battery 20a etc. changes in a similar pattern, it is determined that the battery 20a etc. is connected to the charging device 50 and the battery 20a etc. is identified.

In the next step S304, a process for determining whether charging can be started is performed. In this process, a determination is made as to whether charging can be started based on the charging control information sent from the monitoring terminal device 121, i.e., the chargeable information and non-chargeable information acquired in the charging control information acquisition process (S301). This makes it possible to "reserve" the charging operation of the charging device 50 and the charging of the battery 20a, etc., i.e., charge control of the charging device 50, based on the chargeable information and non-chargeable information previously set by the monitoring terminal device 121.

If it is determined that charging can be started because the charging control information indicates that charging is possible (S304; possible), charging processing is performed in the following step S308. On the other hand, if it is determined that charging cannot be started because the charging control information indicates that charging is not possible (S304; not possible), charging is not performed on the battery 20a, etc. Therefore, in this case, processing proceeds to step S321.

In the error information display process of step S321, the contents of the corresponding error are displayed on the display unit 58 of the charging device 50. For example, in this case, information that the monitoring center 120 has determined that charging is not possible is clearly displayed by the LED's light color or blinking pattern, or text information on the LCD panel.

In the charging process of step S308, the battery 20a, etc. is charged according to a predetermined charging pattern. The predetermined charging pattern may be, for example, a uniform charging pattern determined in advance, or an individual charging pattern for the battery 20a, etc. linked to a battery ID. These charging patterns are read out from the memory of the control unit 54 and used.

This charging process is performed until charging is completed (S315; No), but in this first embodiment, a determination as to whether charging should be continued is made even during charging. That is, as in the individual information acquisition process described above (FIG. 5; S205), after the charging information acquisition process is performed in step S309, a determination as to whether charging should be continued is made in step S313. Then, if it is determined that charging can be continued as is (S313; Possible), the process proceeds to step S315, where a determination process as to whether charging is completed is made.

In step S309, charging information acquisition processing is performed. This processing acquires individual information of the battery 20a etc. being charged as charging information from the BMU 30a etc., and the flow of this processing is shown as a subroutine in Figure 7 (B). Therefore, from here on, the explanation will be given mainly with reference to Figure 7 (B).

As shown in FIG. 7B, in the charging information acquisition process, first, in step S501, a process of inquiring battery information from the BMU 30a, etc. is performed. As in the individual information acquisition process of FIG. 7A, the battery ID of the battery 20a, etc. and a battery information inquiry command are transmitted from the communication unit 59a of the charging device 50 to the communication unit 33 of the BMU 30a, etc. via the wireless communication line 90a. As a result, the BMU 30a, etc. that receives the inquiry command acquires battery information of the battery 20a, etc. at the time of the inquiry or within the last few seconds before and after the inquiry from the various sensors 35 to 38, etc. described above, and transmits it to the charging device 50 as individual information of the battery 20a, etc. In this case, the battery information is information obtained from the voltage sensor 35, etc. during charging, such as the following (23) to (28).

(23) Charging voltage VBc (charging voltage of battery 20a, etc.)
(24) Charging current IBC (charging current for battery 20a, etc.)
(25) Charging fluid volume LRc (amount of electrolyte in battery 20a, etc.)
(26) Charging battery temperature TBc (temperature of battery 20a, etc.)
(27) Indoor temperature during charging TRc (temperature inside the battery storage chamber 11)
(28) Outside temperature during charging TXc (temperature outside the battery storage chamber 11)

In this first embodiment, the voltage during charging VBc is measured by the voltage sensor 35, the current during charging IBC is measured by the current sensor 36, the fluid volume during charging LRc is measured by the fluid volume sensor 38, the battery temperature during charging TBc is measured by the temperature sensor 37, the indoor temperature during charging TRc is measured by the temperature sensor 81, and the outdoor temperature during charging TXc is measured by the temperature sensor 83.

Of these pieces of battery information during charging (hereafter referred to as "battery information during charging"), (23) to (26) the charging voltage VBc, charging current IBc, charging fluid volume LRc, and charging battery temperature TBc are dynamic information obtained by grasping the state of the battery 20a, etc. during charging, and (27) and (28) the charging indoor temperature TRc and charging outdoor temperature TXc are ambient environment information for the battery 20a, etc. Note that although the temperatures in (27) and (28) are not information about the battery 20a, etc. itself, they affect the charging conditions for the battery 20a, etc. For this reason, in this first embodiment, (27) and (28) are also included in the battery information.

When the charging battery information (23) to (28) above is received by the communication unit 59a of the charging device 50 in the battery information reception process of step S503, the control unit 54 of the charging device 50 acquires it and stores it in memory by the battery information storage process of step S505. The memory of the control unit 54 stores the information in association with the battery ID of the battery 20a, etc.

Note that in the charging information acquisition process (S500), a process for acquiring status information (charging device individual information) of the charging device 50 (FIG. 4(A); status information acquisition process (S101)) may be added. For example, the status information acquisition process (S101) is added before the battery information inquiry process (S501) or after the battery information storage process (S505). This makes it possible to acquire the aforementioned status information (1) to (7) (input voltage VCi, input current ICi, output voltage VCo, output current ICo, internal device vibration GCi, internal device temperature TCi, internal device humidity HCi) even during the charging operation of the charging device 50.

When the battery information storage process in step S505 is completed, the process returns to the charge control process in FIG. 6, and the charge control information acquisition process is performed again in step S311. That is, when the charge process (S308) is started based on the chargeable information sent from the monitoring terminal device 121 and the battery 20a, etc. is being charged by the charging device 50 (during charging), the monitoring terminal device 121 may send to the charging device 50 information on the battery 20a, etc. that cannot be charged or information instructing the charging device to stop charging. Therefore, the charge control information is acquired by the charge control information acquisition process (S311) even during charging.

In this case, the "charge-not-possible information" is charge control information that is sent from the monitoring terminal device 121 to the charging device 50 by the operation of the monitoring person M when, for example, the battery 20a etc. being charged is not the battery that should be charged but the charging "OK" radio button 123g is selected and the "OK" button 123i is selected by mistake by the monitoring person M, or when a reason to stop charging arises for the battery 20a etc. after the fact, as will be described later with reference to FIG. 9.

The "charging stop instruction information" is charging control information that is transmitted from the monitoring terminal device 121 to the charging device 50 by the operation of the monitoring person M, for example, when a reason arises during charging that the charging operation should not be continued, such as an electrical malfunction in the charging device 50, or when such a reason has arisen before charging has started but the "OK" button 123e that allows the charging operation is mistakenly selected and then the "Confirm" button 123i is selected.

In the subsequent charging continuation determination process in step S313, a determination is made as to whether charging can be continued based on the charging battery information acquired in the charging information acquisition process (S309) and the charging control information acquired in the charging control information acquisition process (S311). For example, if the charging voltage VBc and charging current IBc of battery 20a etc. are within a voltage value and current value range according to a predetermined charging pattern, a "possible" determination is made to continue charging as is (S311; possible).

In contrast, if the charging voltage VBc or charging current IBc of the battery 20a, etc. is outside the range of the voltage or current according to the specified charging pattern, a "Not possible" determination is made to stop the charging process (S313; Not possible). Also, if the charging battery temperature TBc, the charging indoor temperature TRc, or the charging outdoor temperature TXc is outside the range of a specified temperature (e.g., 0°C to 40°C), a "Not possible" determination is made to prevent further deterioration of the performance of the battery 20a, etc.

In addition, if the charging control information acquired by the charging control information acquisition process in step S311 is "charging not possible information" or "charging stop instruction information," the control to stop (stop) charging is performed by the monitoring officer M operating the monitoring terminal device 121. Therefore, even in such a case, a "not possible" determination is made to stop (stop) the charging process (S313; not possible).

If the charging continuation determination process in step S313 determines that the charging is not possible (S313; not possible), the charging process is stopped and the process proceeds to an error information display process (S321), where information regarding the specific reason that is the basis for such a determination is displayed on the display unit 58 by the LED's light color or blinking pattern or text information on the LCD panel.

After the error information display process is performed in step S321, the error information displayed on the display unit 58 is encoded into a predetermined error code in the next error information transmission process (S323), and then transmitted to the BMU 30a, etc. via the communication unit 59a and the wireless communication line 90a. This allows the BMU 30a, etc. (control unit 32) that receives the error code to record or update the error history related to the monitored battery 20a, etc., by, for example, storing the error information based on the error code in the memory of the control unit 32. Note that the generation (encoding) of the error code may be performed in the error information display process (S321) or in each determination process (S304, S313).

In the charging device 50, the error information storage process is performed in the next step S325. In this process, the control unit 54 stores the error information based on the error code in its memory in association with the battery ID of the battery 20a, etc. This causes the error history for the battery 20a, etc. to be recorded or updated.

On the other hand, if step S313 does not determine that charging is possible, i.e., if a determination is made that charging is possible (S313; possible), the process proceeds to step S315 to determine whether the currently ongoing charging of the battery 20a, etc. has been completed.

In step S315, a process is performed to determine whether charging of the battery 20a, etc. is complete. For example, the charging completion of the battery 20a, etc. is determined based on the charging voltage VBc and charging current IBC acquired by the charging information acquisition process (S309). The charging completion of the battery 20a, etc. may also be determined based on the elapsed time from the start of charging or from reaching a predetermined voltage. If it is determined that charging is not complete (S315; No), the process returns to the charging process in step S308. If it is determined that charging is complete (S315; Yes), charging completion information that can notify the user that charging is complete is displayed on the display unit 58, and the process proceeds to the next step S317.

In the charging completion information (charging information) transmission process of step S317, charging information indicating that charging of the battery 20a etc. that had been charging up until that point has been completed is linked to the battery ID of the battery 20a etc. and sent to the monitoring terminal device 121. This information is transmitted to the monitoring terminal device 121, for example, together with the battery ID of the battery 20a etc. by the communication unit 59b via the wireless communication line 90b. In response to this, the monitoring terminal device 121 that receives such charging completion information stores the information in memory and displays information on the display 123 as described below.

In step S318, a full charge completion determination is made as to whether charging has ended (completed) for all batteries 20a, etc., based on the ID list stored in the memory of the control unit 54. For example, in the charge completion determination process (S315), information to that effect (charged information) is added to the battery ID of the battery 20a, etc., for which charging has been completed. This makes it possible to determine whether full charging has been completed in step S318 by referring to such an ID list, based on whether charged information has been added to the battery ID.

If it is not determined by the determination process of step S318 that all charging has been completed (S318; No), there are batteries 20a etc. that have not yet been charged, so the process returns to step S301 and the charge control information acquisition process etc. is performed again. On the other hand, if it is determined that all charging has been completed (S318; Yes), there are no batteries 20a etc. that have not yet been charged, so the process proceeds to the next step S319. Note that if all charging has not been completed even after a predetermined period of time has elapsed, a timeout process may be performed to forcibly proceed to step S319.

The process of acquiring status information (charging device individual information) of the charging device 50 (FIG. 4(A); status information acquisition process (S101)) may be added immediately after the judgment process of steps S315 and S318 described above. This makes it possible to acquire the status information (1) to (7) described above (input voltage VCi, input current ICi, output voltage VCo, output current ICo, internal device vibration GCi, internal device temperature TCi, internal device humidity HCi) even after the charging operation of the charging device 50 has stopped.

In the charging information storage process of step S319, the results of the judgments made by the above-mentioned judgment processes (S304, S313) and the individual information of the above-mentioned battery 20a, etc., at least the information (11) to (19) above excluding the information (20) to (22) above (battery type, nominal voltage, rated capacity) that does not change once registered, and the information (23) to (28) above during charging (voltage during charging VBc, current during charging IBc, fluid volume during charging LRc, battery temperature during charging TBc, indoor temperature during charging TRc, outdoor temperature during charging TXc), are stored in the memory of the control unit 54 in association with the battery ID of the charged battery 20a, etc. In addition, when the above information (1) to (7) (input voltage VCi, input current ICi, output voltage VCo, output current ICo, internal device vibration GCi, internal device temperature TCi, internal device humidity HCi) is acquired, this information is also associated with the operation information of the charging device 50 (information indicating before, during, and after the charging operation has stopped) and stored in the memory of the control unit 54.

For example, the above information (11) to (15) (pre-charge voltage VBb, pre-charge fluid volume LRb, pre-charge battery temperature TBb, pre-charge indoor temperature TRb, pre-charge outdoor temperature TXb) is stored in memory along with the acquired year, month, day, hour, minute, and second information. Also, the above information (18) and (19) (number of charges NTc, charging time TMc) is stored in memory with the number of charges NTc added once for this charge, and the time required for charging added to the charging time TMc.

If the control unit 54 has sufficient memory capacity, the above information (23) to (28) (voltage during charging VBc, current during charging IBc, fluid volume during charging LRc, battery temperature during charging TBc, indoor temperature during charging TRc, outdoor temperature during charging TXc) acquired while the battery 20a, etc. was being charged may be stored in memory together with the acquired year, month, day, hour, minute, and second information associated with the battery ID of the charged battery 20a, etc. In this way, for example, charging information for each battery 20a, etc. can be accumulated over time, making it possible to use this data as the source data for statistical processing related to the batteries 20a, etc.

<Charging Device Control Processing of Monitoring Terminal Device 121>
Next, the flow of the charging device control process shown in Fig. 8 will be described. The monitoring terminal device 121 is an information terminal device that allows a monitoring person M to monitor and operate the operating state of the battery 20a and the charging device 50. The charging device control process is provided, for example, as one function of a predetermined application software (for example, a forklift battery management application) installed in the monitoring terminal device 121. Therefore, the charging device control process is started by selecting an icon corresponding to the charging device control process on the main screen of the application or the like.

As shown in FIG. 8, in the charging device control process, a predetermined initialization process is first performed in step S1001. In this process, for example, the display format and initial values for the individual information list of the battery 20a, etc., which will be described later with reference to FIG. 9, are set.

In the next step S1003, a process for receiving individual information, etc. is performed. As described above, in this first embodiment, the individual information, etc. transmission process (FIG. 5; S209) of the individual information collection process (S200) sends from the charging device 50 individual information (above (11) to (22)), battery ID (or battery IDs), and status information of the charging device 50 (above (1) to (7)) regarding all batteries 20a, etc. registered in the ID list. Therefore, in this step S1003, a process for receiving this information sent from the charging device 50 via the wireless communication line 90b is performed.

In the next step S1005, a process for detecting abnormal values, etc. is performed. In this process, possible abnormalities and other detections that may occur in the batteries 20a, etc. and the charging device 50 are performed based on the battery individual information ((11)-(22) above) and the charging device individual information ((1)-(7) above) of the information received from the charging device 50 by the individual information reception process in step S1003. The detection results are linked to the battery ID of each battery 20a, etc. and the charging device ID of the charging device 50 and stored in the memory of the monitoring terminal device 121.

For example, for the battery 20a, if the pre-charge liquid amount LRb is less than a first predetermined amount, or if the pre-charge battery temperature TBb, pre-charge indoor temperature TRb, or pre-charge outdoor temperature TXb is outside a predetermined first temperature range (e.g., 0°C to 40°C), charging the battery 20a or the like may lead to performance degradation, so an "abnormality" is detected. Also, for example, if the number of uses NTu or the number of charges NTc of the battery 20a or the like exceeds a predetermined number of times that requires battery replacement, or if the usage time TMu or charging time TMc of the battery 20a or the like exceeds a predetermined time that requires battery replacement, the battery 20a or the like will require replacement, so an "abnormality" is detected. Note that if the pre-charge voltage VBb of the battery 20a or the like is equal to or greater than a predetermined voltage value that does not require charging, "no charging required" is detected as other.

In addition, for the charging device 50, for example, if the input voltage VCi, input current ICi, output voltage VCo, or output current ICo are outside the range of their respective specified voltage values, an "abnormality" is detected because there is a possibility that normal charging operation of the battery 20a, etc. may not be performed or that a malfunction may occur in the charging device 50. An "abnormality" is detected if the input current ICi or output current ICo exceeds the specified value even before the charging operation of the charging device 50. An "abnormality" is also detected if the internal device temperature TCi, internal device humidity HCi, or internal device vibration GCi are outside the range of their respective specified values, because if the charging device 50 performs a charging operation, this may lead to a malfunction or insufficient charging.

In the next step S1007, a list creation process is performed. This process generates an individual information list to be displayed on the display 123 of the monitoring terminal device 121, and creates a table that can display the individual information (above (11) to (22)) of all batteries 20a, etc. registered in the ID list, and the status information of the charging device 50 (above (1) to (7)). In this list, the color of the square mark displayed on the left side of each individual information indicates the presence or absence of an abnormality, etc. detected in step S1005. For example, if an abnormality, etc. is present, a black ■ mark is displayed.

In addition, in the first embodiment, for example, for the battery 20, a format is adopted in which individual information for each battery 20a, etc. is aggregated and displayed (hereinafter referred to as an "aggregated format") (see FIG. 9). Although not shown, it may be configured so that a list can be created in a format in which the same type of information for each battery 20a, etc. can be displayed in a comparable manner for each item of the individual battery information.

In the next step S1009, a list display process is performed. In this process, for example, as shown in FIG. 9, an information area 123a is displayed at the top of the screen of the display 123, in which the status information of the charging device 50 (individual charging device information) and the charging device ID of the charging device 50 are collected in a listable manner, and a selection area 123b is displayed on the left side of the screen, which includes an "OK" button 123e that allows the operation of the charging device 50 (i.e., charging operation) and an "NG" button 123f that rejects the operation.

In addition, below the information area 123a, an information area 123c is displayed showing an aggregated list for each battery 20a, etc., and to the left of the screen is a selection area 123d including radio buttons 123g that allow the user to select whether or not to charge the battery 20a, etc. In FIG. 9, individual battery information is shown for the first battery #01 (battery 20a) through the third battery #03 (battery 20c). If there is individual information for battery #04 and onwards, it can be displayed by scrolling the screen upwards.

In the monitoring terminal device 121, the information areas 123a, 123c and selection areas 123b, 123d displayed on the display 123 are equipped with, for example, an individual information display function, a charging control instruction function, an abnormality display function, etc.

The individual information display function is a function that displays individual information of the battery 20a, etc. and the charging device 50 in the information areas 123c and 123a. For example, as shown in FIG. 9, for the battery 20a, the battery ID "#01", battery type "Pb", nominal voltage "48V", and rated capacity "280Ah" are displayed at the top of the information area 123c, which correspond to the battery ID and the individual information (20) to (22) described above. The battery type "Pb" stands for a lead battery, and for a lithium battery it is displayed as "Li". Also, below that, the following information is displayed, corresponding to the battery information (11) to (19) above: pre-charge terminal voltage: "41V", pre-charge electrolyte level: "100%," pre-charge battery temperature: "30°C", pre-charge indoor temperature: "30°C", pre-charge outdoor temperature: "27°C", number of uses: "123 times", usage time: "1234 hours", number of charges: "123 times", and charge time: "456 hours".

For charging device 50, the charging device ID "#91" is displayed at the top of information area 123a, which corresponds to the charging device ID and the above-mentioned status information (1) to (7), and below that, the input voltage is "200V", the input current is "0.5A", the output voltage is "48.1V", the output current is "0.0A", the temperature inside the device is "35°C", the humidity inside the device is "47%", and the vibration inside the device is "0.4 Gal". In this example display, before charging has started, the input current and output current of charging device 50 are very low or zero.

The charging control instruction function is a function in which the monitoring person M outputs chargeable information and non-chargeable information for the charging device 50 to the charging device 50 via the monitoring terminal device 121. In this first embodiment, for the operation (charging operation) of the charging device 50, for example, by selecting either the "OK" button 123e or the "NG" button 123f displayed in the selection area 123b, and then selecting the "Confirm" button 123i, the chargeable information and non-chargeable information are transmitted to the charging device 50 as described below. For example, the "OK" button 123e or the "NG" button 123f is selected by touching it with a pointing device or a touch pen (including selection by the keyboard 125, the same applies below), and the text information and its background are displayed in a negative-positive inversion (for example, the "OK" button 123e). The "Back" button 123h is selected when the charging device control process is terminated (S1013; Esc) and the main screen of a specified application software is returned to.

As for charging the battery 20a, etc., by selecting one of the two radio buttons 123g displayed in the selection area 123d and then selecting the "OK" button 123i, information on whether charging is possible or not is sent, as described below. When the radio button 123g is not selected, it is indicated by a circle (white circle), and when it is selected by touching it with a pointing device, a touch pen, etc., a black circle (black circle) is displayed within the circle. In FIG. 9, for example, the radio button 123g corresponding to "OK" displayed in the selection area 123d for the battery ID "#01" is selected, and the radio button 123g corresponding to "NG" displayed in the selection area 123d for the battery ID "#03" is selected. In this example, when the "OK" radio button 123g is selected, the text color of "OK" is displayed darker, and when the "NG" radio button 123g is selected, the text information and its background in the selection area 123d are displayed in a negative-positive inversion.

The abnormality display function is based on the detection results of the abnormal value detection process (S1005) described above, and indicates, for example, when the value corresponding to the charging device individual information of the charging device 50 or the battery individual information of the battery 20a or the like is an abnormal value that exceeds or falls short of a threshold value that is predetermined as a normal reference value. In the first embodiment, for example, the □ (white square) mark displayed at the left end of each individual information changes to a ■ (black square) mark to indicate information that exceeds or falls short of the reference value. In FIG. 9, among the individual information displayed in the information area 123c of the battery ID "#02", the ■ mark displayed to the left of the pre-charge terminal voltage "46V" indicates that the normal reference value during charging has been exceeded, that is, "charging is not required". Also, the ■ mark displayed to the left of the number of charges "1001 times" of the battery ID "#03" indicates that the allowable number of times has exceeded 1000.

The input of such charging control information (chargeable information and non-chargeable information) is accepted by the charging control information input process in step S1011, and the input of the charging control information is confirmed by selecting the "Decision" button 123i. Whether or not the "Decision" button 123i is selected is determined by the input confirmation determination process in step S1013. That is, the input of the charging control information is accepted (S1011) until the "Decision" button 123i is selected (S1013; No). Then, when it is determined that the "Decision" button 123i has been selected (S1013; Yes), the charging control information is prepared as transmission data to be transmitted to the charging device 50 based on the confirmed input of the charging control information (S1015), and the transmission data is transmitted (S1017).

As a result, the data sent from the monitoring terminal device 121 passes through the line termination device 122, the Internet 100, and the access point 110, and then reaches the charging device 50 via the wireless communication line 90b, whereby the charging device 50 controls the charging of the battery 20a, etc., as described above. In other words, it becomes possible to remotely control the charging operation of the charging device 50 for the battery 20a, etc., from the monitoring terminal device 121.

When the charging control information transmission process in step S1017 ends, the series of charging device control processes ends and the screen returns to the main screen of the specified application software, etc. Note that if it is determined in the input confirmation determination process in step S1013 that the "Back" button 123h has been selected or the "Esc" key on the keyboard 125 has been pressed (S1013; Esc), the charging device control process ends and the screen returns to the main screen of the specified application software, etc.

As described above, the charging system 2 of the first embodiment includes a monitoring terminal device 121 having a display 123 and a keyboard 125 and connected to the Internet 100, a charging device 50 provided at a location away from the monitoring terminal device 121 and connected to the Internet 100 via a wireless communication line 90b so as to be able to communicate information with the monitoring terminal device 121, and a plurality of BMUs 30a, etc. provided corresponding to each of a plurality of batteries 20a, etc. charged by the charging device 50, and transmitting corresponding individual battery information to the charging device 50 via the wireless communication line 90a.

The charging device 50 receives and stores the individual battery information (above (11)-(22)) sent from the BMU 30a, etc. for each of the multiple batteries 20a, etc. The charging device 50 also transmits the stored individual battery information (above (11)-(22)) and individual charging device information (above (1)-(7)) corresponding to the multiple batteries 20a, etc. to the monitoring terminal device 121. In response to this, the monitoring terminal device 121 displays the individual battery information (above (11)-(22)) and individual charging device information (above (1)-(7)) received from the charging device 50 on the display 123, and controls the charging operation of the charging device 50 for the multiple batteries 20a, etc. based on charging control information input from a pointing device, etc.

As a result, even if the charging device 50 is installed at a location far from the monitoring terminal device 121, and the battery information of the multiple batteries 20a etc. that are charged by it, is displayed on the display 123 of the monitoring terminal device 121, so the monitoring personnel M can grasp the charging device information and battery information without going to the site where the charging device 50 is installed. In addition, it becomes possible to "pre-book" the charging operation of the charging device 50 for the multiple batteries 20a etc. from the pointing device of the monitoring terminal device 121. Therefore, the monitoring personnel M can easily grasp information about the batteries 20a etc. and the charging device 50 even remotely.

In addition, the individual battery information (above (11) to (22)) of such multiple batteries 20a, etc. is collected (stored) in the charging device 50, and then transmitted to the monitoring terminal device 121 of the monitoring center 120 via the wireless communication line 90b. Therefore, when communication costs are required for using the wireless communication line 90b, it is possible to significantly reduce the initial cost at the time of line opening and the communication costs during operation, compared to a system configuration in which each BMU 30a, etc. individually transmits the individual battery information to the monitoring terminal device 121 via the wireless communication line 90b.

Furthermore, based on such individual charging device information and individual battery information, it becomes possible to ascertain the occurrence of malfunctions such as breakdowns in the charging device 50, the battery 20a, etc., the BMU 30a, etc., and in some cases, the cause of the breakdown can also be ascertained. Therefore, it becomes possible to remotely ascertain the cause of a breakdown, which previously could only be ascertained by visiting the site where the charging device 50 is installed, and therefore, for example, it becomes possible to provide a prompt and accurate breakdown response by a serviceman.

In addition, in the charging system 2 of the first embodiment, the monitoring terminal device 121 detects the presence or absence of an abnormality of the battery 20a, etc. based on the battery individual information (above (11) to (22)) of the battery 20a, etc. sent from the BMU 30a, etc., and detects the presence or absence of an abnormality of the charging device 50 based on the status information of the charging device 50 (above (1) to (7)), and the algorithm of the charging device control process (FIG. 8) is configured so that it outputs the detection results in a list displayed on the display 123 (S1005, S1009). As a result, the abnormality diagnosis of the battery 20a, etc. and the charging device 50 is performed by the monitoring terminal device 121 of the monitoring center 120 and the result is displayed on the display 123, so that the monitoring person M can distinguish at a glance between a battery 20 that can be charged without problems (rechargeable) and a battery 20 that is not recommended to be charged (non-chargeable). Therefore, the monitoring officer M can easily grasp the results of the remote diagnosis as information about the battery 20a etc. and its charging device 50.

[Second embodiment]
Next, a second embodiment of the charging system of the present invention will be described with reference to Figures 10 to 14. As described above, in the charging system 2 of the first embodiment, the monitoring terminal device 121 of the monitoring center 120 is configured to display the individual battery information (above (11) to (22)) and the individual charging device information (above (1) to (7)) on the display 123, and to "pre-book" the charging operation of the charging device 50 for the multiple batteries 20a, etc. based on charging control information input from the keyboard 125, pointing device, etc.

However, for batteries 20a etc. connected to the charging device 50 via the charging cable 70, it may be more convenient to operate the charging device 50 remotely in real time by sending charging start and stop instructions from the monitoring terminal device 121. For example, this may be the case when the operator operating the forklift 10a etc. is unfamiliar with operating the charging device 50, or when the charging schedule for the batteries 20a etc. is so detailed due to the power supply at the site where the forklift 10a etc. is in operation that it is difficult for the operator at the site to keep up with it.

Therefore, the charging system 2' according to the second embodiment is configured so that the monitoring officer M who operates the monitoring terminal device 121' can remotely control the start and stop of charging by the charging device 50' in real time. Note that the system configuration of the charging system 2' and the hardware configurations of the forklift 10, battery 20, BMU 30, and charging device 50' are the same as those of the charging system 2 of the first embodiment (FIGS. 1 to 3), and therefore are not shown. Also, in FIGS. 10 to 14, components that are substantially the same as those of the charging system 2 of the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof is omitted.

<Main Control Processing of the Charging Device 50'>
As shown in Fig. 10, in the main control process performed in the charging device 50' of the second embodiment, a predetermined initialization process is first performed in step S100. In this process, for example, a work area for this process in the memory (RAM) of the control unit 54 is cleared, and a determination result flag described below is set to OFF, which means "charging not possible". This determination result flag is composed of a collection (multiple bits) of bits associated with each battery ID of the battery 20a, etc., and one bit associated with the charging device ID of the charging device 50'. Here, all bits are set to OFF.

In the next step S101, a status information acquisition process is performed. In this process, the charging device individual information (same as (1) to (7) in the first embodiment) output from each of the aforementioned sensors 61 to 67 equipped in the charging device 50' is stored in memory.

In the next step S600, individual information collection processing is performed. This processing differs from the individual information collection processing (S200) of the first embodiment in that it performs an abnormality presence/absence determination processing (S607) based on the battery information (same as (11) to (19) in the first embodiment) acquired by the individual information acquisition processing (S605 (S400)), and also includes related processing (S609, S613).

In the next step S300', a charging control process is performed. In this second embodiment, since charging is performed on the battery 20a etc. connected to the charging device 50' via the charging cable 70, the charging control process in step S300' first determines whether the battery 20a etc. is connected to the charging device 50' (S302), and if it is connected, transmits that information to the monitoring terminal device 121' of the monitoring center 120 (S305), and then performs a process of acquiring charging control information from the monitoring terminal device 121' (S306). This differs from the charging control process (S300) in the first embodiment. The charging control process (S300') will be described later.

<Reception control process of charging device 50′>
The reception control process performed by the charging device 50' is similar to the reception control process of the first embodiment (FIG. 4(B)), so a description thereof will be omitted.
<Individual Information Collection Process of Charging Device 50′>
As shown in FIG. 11, in the individual information collection process (S600) performed by the charging device 50', first, a battery ID reception process is performed in step S601, and then, in the next step S603, it is determined whether or not the ID is already registered. If the battery ID is registered in the ID list stored in the memory of the control unit 54 (S603; Yes), an individual information acquisition process is performed in step S605. If the battery ID is not registered in the ID list (S603; No), the process proceeds to a process (S611) for determining whether or not battery information (above (11) to (19)) has been acquired for all BMUs 30a, etc. having battery IDs registered in the ID list. These processes (S601, S603, S605) are the same as the processes in steps S201, S203, S205 of the individual information collection process in the first embodiment, and therefore detailed description thereof will be omitted.

In step S607, a process is performed to determine whether or not there is an abnormality in the battery 20a that may be charged by the charging device 50', based on the battery information (above (11) to (19)) acquired by the individual information acquisition process (S605 (S400)). This process also determines whether or not there is an abnormality in the charging device 50', based on the status information (above (1) to (7)) acquired by the status information acquisition process (S101). Note that the examples of (11) to (19) above and examples of judgments based on them, as well as the examples of (1) to (7) above and examples of judgments based on them, are similar to the abnormal value detection process (S1005) in the charging device control process (Figure 8) described in the first embodiment, so a description thereof will be omitted here.

If the abnormality determination process in step S607 determines that there is an abnormality (S607; Yes), it is not desirable to charge the battery 20a, etc., using the charging device 50', and the process proceeds to a determination process (S611) described below. On the other hand, if the abnormality determination process in step S607 determines that there is no abnormality (S607; No), the process proceeds to step S609, where the determination result is stored.

In the determination result storage process of step S609, the determination result flag stored in the memory (RAM) of the control unit 54 is set to ON. All bits of the determination result flag are set to OFF (not chargeable) in the predetermined initialization process (S100) described above. Therefore, in this determination result storage process (S609), only the determination result flag (bit) corresponding to the battery 20a etc. or the charging device 50' determined to be "absent" in the determination process of step S607 is set to ON, and the determination result information (chargeability information) of "chargeable" is stored.

For batteries 20a, etc. that are determined by the above-mentioned determination process to not have a registered ID (S603; No) or to have an abnormality (S607; Yes), the determination result storage process of step S609 is not performed. Therefore, the determination result flag (bit) associated with these batteries 20a, etc. is set to off, meaning "not chargeable," and is retained in memory, and "not chargeable" information (not chargeable information) is stored as the determination result information.

In the next step S611, it is determined whether or not the individual battery information (same as (11) to (22) in the first embodiment) of all batteries 20a, etc. has been acquired based on the ID list (information registering the battery IDs of batteries 20a, etc. or their BMUs 30a, etc. that can be charged by the charging device 50') stored in the memory of the control unit 54. For example, by adding information to that effect (acquired information) to the battery ID of batteries 20a, etc. for which individual battery information has already been acquired, it is determined whether or not the individual battery information has been acquired based on the presence or absence of the additional information.

If it is not determined by the determination process of step S611 that the battery individual information of all batteries 20a, etc. has been acquired (S611; No), there are batteries 20a, etc. for which the battery individual information has not been acquired, so the process returns to step S601 and the battery ID reception process, etc. is performed again. On the other hand, if it is determined that the battery individual information of all batteries 20a, etc. has been acquired (S611; Yes), it means that the battery individual information has been acquired for all batteries 20a, etc., so the process proceeds to the next step S613. Note that if the battery individual information of all batteries 20a, etc. cannot be acquired even after a predetermined period of time has elapsed, a timeout process may be performed to forcibly transition the process to step S613.

In step S613, a process for transmitting the judgment result, etc. is performed. In this process, the judgment result information (judgment result flag) from the abnormality judgment process (S607) described above, the individual information (above (11) to (22)) of the battery 20, etc. acquired by the individual information acquisition process (S605 (S400)) described above as information on the battery 20 (battery individual information, etc.) and the battery ID (or ID list) of the battery 20a, etc., and the status information of the charging device 50' acquired by the status information acquisition process (S101) as information on the charging device 50' (charging device individual information, etc.) (above (1) to (7)) and the charging device ID associated with the charging device 50' are transmitted to the monitoring terminal device 121' by the communication unit 59b via the wireless communication line 90b.

As a result, the determination result information (determination result flag), the individual battery information of all batteries 20a etc. and the battery IDs or ID list linked to these, and the status information of the charging device 50' (individual charging device information) and its charging device ID are all sent together to the monitoring terminal device 121' at one time. Therefore, the monitoring terminal device 121' is able to acquire (receive) the individual information of the batteries 20a etc. all at once in the charging device control process described below. When this series of individual information collection processes is completed, the process returns to the main control process in FIG. 10.

<Charging Control Process of the Charging Device 50′>
As shown in Fig. 12, in the charging control process (S300') performed by the charging device 50', first, in step S302, it is determined whether or not the battery 20a, etc. is connected to the charging device 50', and this determination process is repeated (S302; No) until the battery 20a, etc. is connected (S302; Yes). Then, when the battery 20a, etc. is connected to the charging device 50', a battery identification process is performed in step S303. These processes (S302, S303) are similar to the processes in steps S302 and S303 of the charging control process in the first embodiment, and therefore detailed description will be omitted.

When the battery identification process in step S303 identifies any battery 20 (e.g., battery 20a) connected by the charging cable 70 and obtains battery ID information, it becomes possible for the charging device 50' to charge the battery 20a. Therefore, in the next step S305, a charging preparation completion information transmission process is performed to transmit charging preparation completion information (charging information) to the monitoring terminal device 121' of the monitoring center 120, indicating that preparation for charging is complete. As described below, in the charging device control process (FIG. 13) of the monitoring terminal device 121', when this charging information is received (S1209), information indicating that preparation for charging of the battery 20a is complete is displayed on the display 123, and the monitoring staff M can instruct the battery 20a to start charging.

In the next step S306, a charging control information acquisition process is performed. In this process, charging control information transmitted from the monitoring terminal device 121', i.e., charging start instruction information for the battery 20a for which preparation for charging has been completed, is acquired. Then, in the next step S307, a charging start determination process is performed to determine whether the charging information acquired in step S306 is charging start instruction information. In this second embodiment, the charging control information acquisition process (S306) and the charging start determination process (S307) are repeatedly performed until charging start instruction information is acquired (S307; possible) or until a predetermined time has elapsed (S307; Time's up) (S307; not possible).

When it is determined by the determination process of step S307 that the predetermined time has elapsed (S307; Time's UP), information that no instruction to start charging has been received within the predetermined time is displayed on the display unit 58 of the charging device 50' by the LED's light emission color or blinking pattern or text information on the liquid crystal display panel. Also, as in the first embodiment, after executing the error information display process (S321) and error information storage process (S325), the process proceeds to the determination process of step S318.

When it is determined in step S307 that the information is a charging start instruction (S307; possible), charging processing is performed in the next step S308. Including this charging processing (S308), the subsequent processing (S309 (S500), S311, S313, S315, S317, S318, S319, S321, S323, S325) is substantially similar to the charging control processing (FIG. 6) of the first embodiment. The difference from the first embodiment is that the charging stop instruction information included in the charging control information acquired in step S311 includes a case where charging is stopped by selecting the radio button 123g by the monitoring officer M, as described below.

<Charging Device Control Processing of Monitoring Terminal Device 121'>
As shown in FIG. 13, in the charging device control process performed by the monitoring terminal device 121' of the second embodiment, a predetermined initialization process is first performed in step S1201, and then a process of receiving the judgment result, etc. is performed in the next step S1203. As described above, in the second embodiment, the judgment result, etc. transmission process (FIG. 11; S613) of the individual information collection process sends from the charging device 50' the judgment result information (judgment result flag), the battery individual information (above (11) to (22)) regarding all the batteries 20a, etc. registered in the ID list, the battery ID (or ID list) of the batteries 20a, etc., the status information (above (1) to (7)) of the charging device 50', and the charging device ID of the charging device 50'. Therefore, in this step S1203, a process of receiving the information transmitted from the charging device 50' via the wireless communication line 90b is performed.

In the next step S1205, an individual information list is generated to be displayed on the display 123 in the next step S1207. This list is generated to display the battery individual information (above (11) to (22)) of the battery 20a, etc., received in S1203, and the charging device individual information (above (1) to (7)) of the charging device 50'. In this list, the color of the square mark displayed on the left end of each individual information clearly indicates abnormality information based on the judgment result information (judgment result flag). For example, if there is an abnormality, a black square mark is displayed. Note that the information displayed in the information areas 123a and 123c of the display 123 is the same as in the first embodiment (FIG. 9). Therefore, here, the differences from the first embodiment will be mainly described.

In the second embodiment, the monitoring personnel M who operates the monitoring terminal device 121' can remotely control the start and stop of charging by the charging device 50' in real time. Therefore, the monitoring personnel M is configured to be able to input charging start instruction information and charging stop instruction information as information instructing the start and stop of charging to the monitoring terminal device 121' by operating the monitoring personnel M. These inputs are made in the selection area 123d.

For example, when charging preparation completion information ( FIG. 12 ; S305) transmitted from the charging device 50' is received and acquired by the charging information reception process in step S1209, the list displayed in step S1207 is updated (S1211) to display this information visibly to the monitoring officer M. In the second embodiment, for example, for a battery 20 that is ready for charging, the color of the word "Charge" displayed in the selection area 123d where the start or stop of charging can be selected is changed to black.

In the example screen display of the display 123 shown in FIG. 14, the selection area 123d for the first battery "#01" (battery 20a) displays the word "Charge" in black, whereas the selection area 123d for the second battery "#02" (battery 20b) displays the word "Charge" in light gray. This indicates that the battery 20a with battery ID "#01" is ready to be charged, whereas the battery 20b with battery ID "#02" is not ready to be charged (the battery 20b is not connected to the charging device 50').

In addition, when a radio button 123g is selected in the selection area 123d, the text color of "Start" or "Stop" corresponding to the selected radio button 123g is displayed darker than the others. For example, the text color of "Start" in the radio button 123g for battery 20a with battery ID "#01" is darker than that of "Stop," indicating that "Start" has been selected by the radio button 123g.

Furthermore, when charging completion information (FIG. 12; S317) transmitted from the charging device 50' is received and acquired by the charging information reception process of step S1209, the list displayed in step S1207 is updated (S1211) to display this information visibly to the monitoring officer M. For example, when charging of the battery 20a with battery ID "#01" is completed, the text colors of "START" and "STOP" are displayed lighter and the text color of "END" is displayed darker.

In the second embodiment, the monitoring terminal device 121' also has the three functions described in the first embodiment (individual information display function, charging control instruction function, and abnormality display function). Therefore, as an individual information display function, similar to the first embodiment, in the information areas 123a, 123c, etc. displayed on the display 123, the individual battery information (corresponding to the above (11) to (22)) of the battery 20a, etc. and their battery IDs, as well as the individual charging device information (corresponding to the above (1) to (7)) and their charging device IDs of the charging device 50' can be output.

As a charging control instruction function, as described above, the monitoring officer M can select the radio button 123g and the "OK" button 123i displayed in the selection area 123d to output charging start instruction information and charging stop instruction information to the charging device 50' via the monitoring terminal device 121'.

Furthermore, as an abnormality display function, similar to the first embodiment, based on the judgment result information (judgment result flag) sent from the charging device 50', for example, in the information areas 123a and 123c, for information that exceeds or falls short of the normal reference value, a ■ (black square) mark is displayed on the left end of each individual information to indicate that it is an abnormal value. This makes it possible to clearly indicate information when a value corresponding to the charging device individual information of the charging device 50' or the battery individual information of the battery 20a, etc., is an abnormal value that exceeds or falls short of a threshold value previously determined as the normal reference value.

In addition to displaying the left end of each piece of individual information, the second embodiment also has a function of displaying text information saying "Charging not allowed" in a negative-positive inversion in the selection area 123d for batteries 20 for which charging is prohibited, and disabling the instruction to start charging (battery 20c with battery ID "#03" shown in FIG. 14). Conditions for prohibiting charging include, for example, any of the accumulated number of uses, usage time, number of charges, or charging time reaching an upper limit. In the display example shown in FIG. 14, the accumulated number of charges for battery 20c exceeds the upper limit of the allowable number of times (for example, 1000 times), so "Charging not allowed" is displayed in the selection area 123d.

The transmission data generation process (S1217) and the charging control information transmission process (S1219) are similar to the transmission data generation process (S1015) and the charging control information transmission process (S1017) in the charging device control process (FIG. 8) of the first embodiment. Therefore, a description thereof will be omitted here.

The processes for updating the list display and controlling the input of charging control information (S1209, S1211, S1213, S1215, S1217, S1219) are repeated until charging of all batteries 20a, etc. displayed in the information area 123a is completed (S1221; No). When charging of all batteries 20a, etc. is completed (S1221; Yes), the series of charging device control processes is terminated and the screen returns to the main screen of the specified application software. Even if it is determined in the input confirmation determination process in step S1215 that the "Back" button 123h has been selected or the "Esc" key on the keyboard 125 has been pressed (S1215; Esc), the charging device control process is terminated and the screen returns to the main screen of the specified application software.

The data transmitted from the monitoring terminal device 121' passes through the line termination device 122, the Internet 100, and the access point 110, and then reaches the charging device 50' via the wireless communication line 90b, whereby the charging device 50' controls the charging of the battery 20a, etc., as described above. In other words, it becomes possible to remotely control the charging operation of the charging device 50' for the battery 20a, etc., from the monitoring terminal device 121' in real time.

As described above, in the charging system 2' of the second embodiment, when any battery 20a among the multiple batteries 20a, etc. is connected to the charging device 50' via the charging cable 70, the monitoring terminal device 121' of the monitoring center 120 controls the charging start and charging stop (charging end) of the battery 20a by the charging device 50' based on control information input from a pointing device, etc. This makes it possible to remotely and in real time control the charging start and charging stop (charging end) of the battery 20a even if the charging device 50' is installed at a location distant from the monitoring terminal device 121'.

Therefore, in addition to being able to easily grasp information about the battery 20a etc. and its charging device 50' remotely, it is also possible to remotely control the start and end (stop) of charging the battery 20a etc. Also, by remotely controlling the start and end (stop) of charging the battery 20a etc., it is possible to shift the power demand in time at the site where the forklift 10a etc. is operated, so that it is possible to shift the time point of the power demand at the site in time (peak shift) or suppress the maximum value of the power demand (peak cut).

In addition, in the charging system 2' of the second embodiment, the charging device 50' determines whether or not there is an abnormality in any battery 20a and charging device 50' based on the individual battery information and individual charging device information transmitted from the BMU 30a, etc. Then, if it is determined that there is an abnormality in the battery 20a or charging device 50', it transmits information about the abnormality to the monitoring terminal device 121'. The monitoring terminal device 121' that receives this information displays the information about the abnormality on the display 123.

As a result, if there is an abnormality in the battery 20a or the charging device 50', information about the abnormality is displayed on the display 123 of the monitoring terminal device 121', so that, for example, a monitoring person M monitoring the operating status of the charging device 50', battery 20a, etc. can know that an abnormality has occurred in the charging device 50' or battery 20a, etc. without looking at the individual charging device information or individual battery information displayed on the display 123. Therefore, in addition to being able to easily grasp information about the battery 20a, etc. and its charging device 50' remotely, it is also possible to easily grasp remotely that an abnormality has occurred in any battery 20a or charging device 50'.

Furthermore, in the charging system 2' of the second embodiment, the algorithm of the individual information collection process (S600) is configured so that the charging device 50' judges whether or not there is an abnormality in the battery 20a, etc. based on the battery information (above (11) to (19)) of the battery 20a, etc. sent from the BMU 30a, etc., and judges whether or not there is an abnormality based on the status information of the charging device 50' (above (1) to (7)). This makes it possible to perform abnormality diagnosis of the battery 20a, etc. and the charging device 50' by the charging device 50' rather than the monitoring terminal device 121' of the monitoring center 120 (local diagnosis is possible). For example, in an operation site such as a forklift 10a where multiple charging devices 50' are installed, such abnormality diagnosis can be distributed and processed by multiple charging devices 50'. Therefore, compared to the first embodiment in which such anomaly diagnosis processing (FIG. 8; S1005) is performed by a single monitoring terminal device 121', the second embodiment makes it possible to distribute the load due to anomaly diagnosis, thereby reducing the information processing load on the monitoring terminal device 121'.

In the second embodiment described above, the algorithm of the charging device control process (FIG. 13) is configured to output the individual battery information (above (11)-(22)) of the battery 20a, etc. "before charging" and the individual charging device information (above (1)-(7)) of the charging device 50' as the individual battery information and individual charging device information in a list displayed on the display 123 of the monitoring terminal device 121'. However, among these pieces of information, the algorithm of the charging control process (FIG. 12) and the charging device control process (FIG. 13) may be configured to output information that may change during charging of the battery 20a, etc., that is, the charging battery information obtained by the charging information acquisition process (S500) (same as (23)-(28) in the first embodiment) in a list displayed on the display 123 of the monitoring terminal device 121'.

In this case, in the charging control process (FIG. 12) executed by the charging device 50', a charging information transmission process (S310) is added between the charging information acquisition process (S309) and the charging control information acquisition process (S311) to transmit the charging battery information (above (23) to (28)) to the monitoring terminal device 121'. Also, the charging information transmitted by the charging information transmission process (S310) is received as charging information by the charging information reception process (S1209) of the charging device control process (FIG. 13) executed by the monitoring terminal device 121'. As a result, the latest charging battery information (above (23) to (28)) is displayed on the display 123 of the monitoring terminal device 121' every time the list update process (S1211) of the charging device control process (FIG. 13) is performed. In other words, the monitoring person M can grasp the latest information on the above (23) to (28) of the battery 20a etc. during charging in almost real time.

In addition, in the charging information acquisition process (S309 (S500)) of the charging control process (FIG. 12), a status information acquisition process (S101) is added before the battery information inquiry process (FIG. 7(B); S501) or after the battery information storage process (FIG. 7(B); S505), and the algorithm of the charging control process (FIG. 12) is configured so that the above-mentioned (1) to (7) status information during charging operation obtained thereby can also be transmitted by the previously added charging information transmission process (S310). As a result, the latest status information of the above-mentioned (1) to (7) of the charging device 50' during charging operation is displayed on the display 123 of the monitoring terminal device 121' every time the list update process (S1211) of the charging device control process (FIG. 13) is performed. In other words, the monitoring person M can grasp the latest information of the above-mentioned (1) to (7) of the charging device 50' during charging in almost real time.

In the above-mentioned first and second embodiments, an example was given of a case in which charging device individual information is displayed in the information area 123a and battery individual information is displayed in the information area 123c on the display 123 of the monitoring terminal device 121, 121', but the algorithm of the charging device control process (FIGS. 8 and 13) executed by the monitoring terminal device 121' may be configured so that only one of these pieces of individual information can be displayed on the display 123 as necessary.

In the first and second embodiments described above, the charging device 50, 50' is configured to display charging completion information, error information, etc. on the display unit 58 to notify the workers on site of the information. However, for example, a large LED panel with high visibility to the workers may be provided instead of or in addition to the display unit 58. Also, an arbitrary character string may be transmitted from the monitoring terminal device 121, 121' to the charging device 50, 50', and the character string may be displayed on such an LED panel or the display unit 58. This makes it possible to clearly display messages, for example, encouraging the workers on site to be careful or to pay attention to safety management, to the workers on site. Also, a device capable of outputting sound may be provided instead of or in addition to the display unit 58. This makes it possible to call the attention of the workers by configuring the charging device 50, 50' so that the device can sound a predetermined sound.

[Third embodiment]
Next, a third embodiment of the charging system of the present invention will be described with reference to Figures 15 to 19. As described above, in the charging systems 2, 2' of the first and second embodiments, the monitoring terminal devices 121, 121' of the monitoring center 120 are configured to display the individual battery information (above (11) to (22)) and the individual charging device information (above (1) to (7)) on the display 123, and to control the charging operation of the charging devices 50, 50' for the multiple batteries 20a, etc., based on charging control information input from the keyboard 125, pointing device, etc.

However, in maintenance work on the charging device 50, BMU 30a, etc., it may be more convenient to change (update) the control parameters and operation parameters set in the control unit 54 of the charging device 50 and the control unit 32 of the BMU 30a, etc., by remote operation from the monitoring center 120 rather than on-site work. For example, this may occur when on-site workers are unfamiliar with changing such control parameters, or when on-site workers have difficulty performing time-consuming tasks such as changing such control parameters due to a lack of man-hours.

Therefore, in the charging system 2" according to the third embodiment, for example, during the start-up maintenance period of about 10 minutes immediately after the start-up of the charging device 50", the monitoring staff M who operates the monitoring terminal device 121" can remotely update the control parameters and operation parameters of the charging device 50" and the BMU 30". Note that the system configuration of the charging system 2" and the hardware configurations of the forklift 10, the battery 20, the BMU 30" and the charging device 50" are the same as those of the charging system 2 of the first embodiment (FIGS. 1 to 3), and therefore are not shown. Also, in FIGS. 15 to 19, components that are substantially the same as those of the charging system 2 of the first embodiment and the charging system 2' of the second embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof is omitted.

<Main Control Processing of the Charging Device 50″>
As shown in FIG. 15, in the main control process performed in the charging device 50" of the third embodiment, first, a predetermined initialization process is performed in step S100, and then a status information acquisition process is performed in step S101. Up to this point, it is the same as in the first embodiment. Then, in step S103, a device information acquisition process is performed. In this process, information on the control parameters required for the charging control performed by the control unit 54 of the charging device 50" is acquired.

The information on the control parameters differs depending on the charging control method. For example, when the battery cells 23 of the battery 20 are made of lead batteries, charging is performed using a quasi-constant voltage charging method, and the charging end voltage value is set to a predetermined value. In the case of rapid charging, the charging current value and charging timer value for rapid charging are each set to a predetermined value. In addition, if it is necessary to perform temperature correction on these predetermined voltage and current values, a temperature correction value is also set. Note that when the battery cells 23 of the battery 20 are made of lithium batteries, charging is performed using a constant current/constant voltage charging method, and the charging current value, charging end voltage value, etc. are set as the control parameters.

The individual information collection process in step S200' is almost the same as the individual information collection process (S200) of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 5, except that the individual information acquisition process (S205 (S400)) shown in the figure is replaced with the individual information acquisition process (S400') shown in FIG. 15(B). Therefore, for the individual information collection process in step S200', the individual information acquisition process (S400') shown in FIG. 15(B) will be described, and descriptions of the other processes will be omitted.

In addition, the control parameter information of the charging device 50" acquired by the device information acquisition process (S103) of the main control process, and the operating parameter information of the BMU 30"a, etc. acquired by the BMU information acquisition process (S409) of the individual information acquisition process (S400') described below are transmitted to the monitoring terminal device 121" together with the battery individual information and the charging device individual information by the individual information transmission process (S209) of the individual information collection process (S200').

<Individual information acquisition process of charging device 50″>
As shown in FIG. 15B, the individual information acquisition process (S400') differs from the individual information acquisition process (S400) shown in FIG. 7A only in that a BMU information acquisition process is added after step S407. That is, first, in step S401, a process of inquiring about battery information is performed for the BMU 30"a, etc., and in step S403, the battery information (same as (11) to (19) in the first embodiment) is received and then stored in the memory of the control unit 54. In addition, in step S407, specification information (same as (20) to (22) in the first embodiment) is read from the ID list stored in the memory of the control unit 54. In this way, the individual battery information (same as (11) to (22) in the first embodiment) of the battery 20a, etc. is acquired.

In addition, in the individual information acquisition process (S400') of the third embodiment, a BMU information acquisition process is performed in step S409. In this process, information on the operating parameters required for the operation of the sensors possessed by the BMU 30"a etc. and involved in the acquisition of the individual battery information of the monitored battery 20a etc., that is, the sensors 35-38, 81, 83, is acquired.

Specifically, for example, when a predetermined command (parameter information request command) is sent to the BMU 30"a, etc. via the wireless communication line 90a by the BMU information acquisition process in step S409, the communication unit 33 of the corresponding BMU 30"a, etc. receives the parameter information request command, and the control unit 32 of the BMU 30"a, etc. acquires the parameter information request command. The control unit 32 then analyzes the command, reads out the operating parameters of the sensors 35-38, 81, 83 from memory (EPROM, etc.), and then sends a reply (transmission) to the charging device 50". This enables the control unit 54 of the charging device 50" to acquire information on the operating parameters of the sensors 35-38, 81, 83 of the BMU 30"a, etc.

In the next step S690, a process is performed to determine whether or not update parameter information has been received. As described below, this process is performed in the charging device control process executed by the monitoring terminal device 121'', and determines whether or not update parameter information has been received that is transmitted from the monitoring terminal device 121'' to the charging device 50''. The ``update parameter information'' is transmitted from the monitoring terminal device 121'' when, for example, the monitoring officer M operates the monitoring terminal device 121'' of the monitoring center 120 to change the control parameters of the charging device 50'' or the operating parameters of the BMU 30''a, etc.

For this reason, in the judgment process of step S690, if the updated parameter information arrives at the charging device 50" within a predetermined time (e.g., about 10 minutes), the charging device 50" proceeds to the parameter update process of the following step S700 (S690; Yes); if the updated parameter information does not arrive (S690; No), the charging device 50" receives the updated parameter information again. If the updated parameter information does not arrive even after the predetermined time has elapsed (S690; Time's Up), the charging device 50" skips the parameter update process of step S700 and proceeds to the charging control process of step S300. In other words, in the charging device 50" of the third embodiment, the algorithm of the main control process is configured so that if the charging device 50" cannot receive the updated parameter information within about 10 minutes after the power is turned on and the main control process is started, the charging control process (S300) of FIG. 6 can be executed without updating the control parameters, etc.

In addition, for example, when the monitoring terminal device 121'' transmits information indicating no parameter update to the charging device 50'' and the charging device 50'' receives the information, the algorithm of this main control process and the charging device control process described later may be configured so that the charging control process (S300) in FIG. 6 can be executed without waiting for the passage of such a predetermined time.
<Reception control process of charging device 50″>
The reception control process performed by the charging device 50'' is similar to the reception control process of the first embodiment (FIG. 4(B)), so a description thereof will be omitted.
<Parameter Update Process of the Charging Device 50″>
As shown in FIG. 16, in the parameter update process (S700) performed by the charging device 50", first, a charging device update information acquisition process is performed in step S701. When this parameter update process is executed, as described above, the charging device 50" has received update parameter information transmitted from the monitoring terminal device 121"(S690; Yes). Therefore, in this step S701, a process is performed to acquire charging device update information from the received update parameter information. The charging device update information includes the charging device ID of the charging device 50" whose parameters are to be updated, as will be described later.

Therefore, in the next step S703, a determination is made as to whether the charging device ID included in the charging device update information is the charging device ID of the charging device 50". In other words, a determination is made as to whether the charging device 50" is a target for parameter update. If it is determined that the charging device 50" is a target for update (S703; Yes), the operation mode of the charging device 50" is shifted to a parameter update mode in the following step S705. On the other hand, if it is determined that the charging device 50" is not a target for update (S703; No), the process proceeds to step S713, where a process of acquiring BMU update information is performed. This will be described later.

When the operating mode of the charging device 50" transitions to the parameter update mode, an update parameter acquisition process is then performed in step S707. That is, information on the parameters to be updated is acquired from the received update parameter information. Then, in the next step S709, a process is performed to write the information to the memory (e.g., EEPROM) of the control unit 54 based on the information. For example, if the parameter information acquired from the update parameter information is information for changing the charging end voltage value as a control parameter and the changed value is, for example, 49.5 V, a process is performed to write the information of 49.5 V as the control parameter for the charging end voltage value.

This completes the update of the control parameters of the charging device 50", so that in the next step S711, the charging device 50" transitions to normal mode, and the charging device 50" is able to use the updated control parameters to perform processes such as obtaining charging control information.

In step S713, a process is performed to obtain BMU update information. In this process, the BMU update information is obtained from the received update parameter information. As described below, the BMU update information includes the battery ID of the BMU 30"a, etc., whose parameters are to be updated. The BMU update information may include multiple battery IDs of the BMU 30"a, etc., that are to be updated. Therefore, the determination process in step S731, described below, is used to determine whether or not all of the BMUs 30"a, etc., that are to be updated have completed updating.

In the next step S715, a process is performed to determine whether or not the BMU update information contains the battery ID of the BMU 30"a, etc. to be updated. In other words, if the BMU update information does not contain a battery ID, then the BMU 30"a, etc. to be updated does not exist. Therefore, in such a case (S715; No), this parameter update process is terminated and the process returns to the main control process of Figure 15 (A). On the other hand, if the BMU update information contains a battery ID (S715; Yes), the process proceeds to step S717.

In step S717, an update parameter acquisition process is performed. That is, information on the parameters to be updated is acquired from the update parameter information that has been received. Then, based on that information, the next step S719 is performed to send a "parameter update mode command" to the BMU 30"a etc. that has that battery ID. For example, if the battery ID included in the BMU update information is "#02", a "parameter update mode command" is sent via wireless communication line 90a to the BMU 30"b that monitors the battery 20b mounted on the forklift 10b. From here on, the update process executed by the BMU 30" will also be explained.

<BMU30" update process>
As shown in FIG. 17, the BMU 30" is constantly in a state of waiting for a command due to the command reception process (S2101) and the command reception determination process (S2103). Therefore, for example, when a "parameter update mode command" is transmitted from the charging device 50" to the BMU 30"b, the control unit 32 of the BMU 30"b that receives the command first analyzes the command in step S2105 and performs a process of determining the mode corresponding to the command. Then, the process is assigned to the corresponding mode. For example, if it is determined that the received command is the parameter update mode (S2105; parameter update mode), the process proceeds to step S2107, and if it is determined that the received command is another XX mode (S2105; other XX mode), the process proceeds to step S2108.

If the command sent from the charging device 50" to the BMU 30"b is a "parameter update mode command", the control unit 32 of the BMU 30"b changes the operating mode of the BMU 30"b to the parameter update mode by the parameter update mode transition process (S2107), and then in the subsequent step S2109, transmits the mode information of the parameter update mode, which is the mode information after the transition, to the charging device 50" (S2109).

After that, when the parameter information to be updated transmitted from the charging device 50" is received in step S2111, the next step S2113 performs a process of writing the parameter information to the memory (e.g., EEPROM) of the control unit 32 based on the parameter information to be updated. For example, if the parameter information to be updated is information to change the temperature correction value as an operating parameter of the temperature sensor 83 that measures the temperature outside the battery storage chamber 11 and the change value is, for example, +0.5°C, a process of writing the information of +0.5°C is performed as an operating parameter to correct the temperature information of the temperature sensor 83.

This completes the update of the operating parameters of the BMU 30"b, so in the next step S2115, the BMU 30"b sends update completion information to the charging device 50", and then in step S2117, the mode changes to normal mode, completing the update process for the BMU 30"b. After this, the BMU 30"b uses the updated operating parameters, so the measurement value of the temperature outside the battery storage chamber 11 measured by the temperature sensor 83 is corrected with the correction value for the operating parameters.

<Parameter Update Process of the Charging Device 50″ (continued)>
Returning now to FIG. 16, the rest of the parameter update process will be described. When mode information after the transition to the parameter update mode is transmitted from the BMU 30"b to the charging device 50" in step S2109 of the BMU 30"b (see FIG. 17), the charging device 50" receives the mode information in step S721 (S721), and then performs a process of determining whether the mode information is the parameter update mode in step S723. Then, until it is determined that the mode information is the parameter update mode (S723; Yes) or until a predetermined time has elapsed (S723; Time's Up), the mode information reception process in step S721 is repeated (S723; No).

When it is determined that the mode information is the parameter update mode, the BMU 30"b, which is the target of the parameter update, is waiting for information on the parameters to be updated (FIG. 17; S2111), and so transmits the information on the parameters to be updated to the BMU 30"b by the parameter information transmission process of the next step S725. As described above, when the parameter update is completed, the BMU 30"b transmits information indicating that the parameter update has been completed (update completion information) to the charging device 50" (FIG. 17; S2115), so the update information reception process is repeated in the charging device 50" until the update completion information is received by the update information reception process of step S727 (S729; Yes) (S729; No).

Then, in step S731, a process is performed to determine whether or not all updates of the BMUs 30"a, etc. to be updated, which are included in the BMU update information, have been completed. If it is determined that all updates have been completed (S731; Yes), this series of parameter update processes is terminated and the process returns to the main control process of FIG. 15(A). On the other hand, if it is not determined in step S731 that all updates have been completed, that is, if there are still BMUs 30"a, etc. to be updated (S731; No), the process proceeds to step S715, where each process is performed to proceed with updating the parameters of the remaining BMUs 30"a, etc.

<Charging device control process of monitoring terminal device 121″>
The charging device control processing performed by the monitoring terminal device 121" of the third embodiment differs from the charging device control processing performed by the monitoring terminal devices 121, 121' of the first and second embodiments in that in addition to the individual information list, a list (parameter list) of control parameters of the charging device 50" and operating parameters of the BMU 30"a, etc. is displayed. For this reason, the parameter list displayed in addition to the individual information list will be described here. Therefore, illustration and description of the individual information list of the third embodiment, which displays the same as the individual information list of the first embodiment (Figure 9), will be omitted.

As shown in FIG. 18, in the charging device control process performed by the monitoring terminal device 121" of the third embodiment, a predetermined initialization process is first performed in step S1401. This process is similar to the initialization process (S1001) performed by the charging device control process of the first embodiment, except that the display format and initial values for the parameter list are set.

In the next step S1403, individual information reception processing is performed. As described above, in this third embodiment, processing (S103) for acquiring device information of the charging device 50'' is performed in the main control processing (FIG. 15(A)), and processing (S409) for acquiring information on the BMU 30''a, etc. is performed in the individual information acquisition processing (FIG. 15(B)) of the individual information collection processing (S200'). Therefore, the "information on the control parameters of the charging device 50'' and the "information on the operating parameters of the BMU 30''a, etc." acquired by these processing are transmitted to the monitoring terminal device 121'' together with the battery individual information and the charging device individual information by the individual information transmission processing (S209) of the individual information collection processing (S200'). Therefore, in the individual information reception processing of step S1403, in addition to the battery individual information and the charging device individual information, "information on the control parameters of the charging device 50''" and "information on the operating parameters of the BMU 30''a, etc." are also received from the charging device 50''.

In the next step S1405, a list generation process is performed. In this process, for the individual battery information ((11)-(22) above) and the individual charging device information ((1)-(7) above), a list similar to the individual information list described in the first embodiment is created, and in the next step S1407, this is displayed on the display 123 (Figure 9). In contrast, for the "information on control parameters of the charging device 50"" and the "information on operating parameters of the BMU 30"a, etc.," a list that collects the respective parameters, that is, a parameter list, is created, and in the next step S1407, this is displayed on the display 123 (Figure 19).

That is, as shown in the example of the screen display of the display 123 in FIG. 19, the control parameters currently set for the charging device 50" are displayed in the information area 123j at the top of the screen of the display 123. For example, the charging device 50" with the charging device ID "#91" has the semi-constant voltage charging end voltage value set to "49.0 V", the charging timer value for rapid charging set to "30 minutes", the charging current value for rapid charging set to "560 A", and the temperature correction value set to "+0.3°C". Each of these values can be increased by touching the "increase" button 123m marked with a "▲" with a pointing device, touch pen, etc., or decreased by touching the "decrease" button 123n marked with a "▼".

In addition, the information area 123k displays the operating parameters of the BMU 30"a, etc., which are currently set in the BMU 30"a, etc., at the bottom of the screen of the information area 123j. For example, the BMU 30"a that monitors the battery 20a with battery ID "#01" has the following settings: voltage correction value of the voltage sensor 35 is "+0.2V", current correction value of the current sensor 36 is "-0.5A", fluid volume correction value of the fluid volume sensor 38 is "+0%", battery temperature correction value of the temperature sensor 37 is "+0.0°C", chamber temperature correction value of the temperature sensor 81 is "-0.2°C", and outside temperature correction value of the temperature sensor 83 is "+0.5°C". Each of these values can be increased by touching the "increase" button 123m marked with a "▲" with a pointing device, touch pen, etc., or decreased by touching the "decrease" button 123n marked with a "▼".

The values of the control parameters and operation parameters changed using the "Increase" button 123m or the "Decrease" button 123n are sent to the charging device 50" as updated parameter information, as described below, by selecting the "Determine" button 123i. The "Return" button 123h is selected to end this charging device control process (S1411; Esc) and return to the main screen of a specified application software, etc.

The input of such update parameter information is accepted by the update parameter information input process of step S1409, and the input of the update parameter information is confirmed by selecting the "Decision" button 123i. Whether or not the "Decision" button 123i has been selected is determined by the input confirmation determination process of step S1411. That is, the input of update parameter information is accepted (S1409) until the "Decision" button 123i is selected (S1411; No). Then, if it is determined that the "Decision" button 123i has been selected (S1411; Yes), the input of update parameter information is prepared as transmission data to be transmitted to the charging device 50" based on the confirmed input of the update parameter information (S1413), and the transmission data is then transmitted (S1415).

As a result, the data sent from the monitoring terminal device 121'' passes through the line termination device 122, the Internet 100, and the access point 110, and then reaches the charging device 50'' via the wireless communication line 90b, whereby the charging device 50'' updates the control parameters and the operating parameters of the BMU 30''a, etc., as described above. In other words, it becomes possible to remotely control the updates of the control parameters of the charging device 50'' and the operating parameters of the BMU 30''a, etc. from the monitoring terminal device 121''.

When the update parameter information transmission process in step S1415 ends, the series of charging device control processes ends and the screen returns to the main screen of the specified application software, etc. Note that if it is determined in the input confirmation determination process in step S1411 that the "Back" button 123h has been selected or the "Esc" key on the keyboard 125 has been pressed (S1411; Esc), the charging device control process ends and the screen returns to the main screen of the specified application software, etc.

In the above-described third embodiment, the control parameters and operation parameters of the charging device 50" and the BMU 30"a, etc., are exemplified as information to be updated by the monitoring terminal device 121", but this is not limited thereto. For example, constants and variables stored in the EEPROM of the charging device 50" and the BMU 30"a, etc. may be updated by the monitoring terminal device 121".

As described above, in the charging system 2" of the third embodiment, the monitoring terminal device 121" of the monitoring center 120 changes the control parameters involved in the charging operation by the charging device 50" based on the control information input from a pointing device or the like. The monitoring terminal device 121" also changes the operating parameters of the voltage sensor 35 etc. (involved in obtaining individual battery information) of the BMU 30"a corresponding to any battery 20a, such as one of a plurality of batteries 20a, based on the control information input from a pointing device or the like. This makes it possible to remotely change (update) the control parameters involved in the charging operation and the operating parameters of the voltage sensor 35 etc. for the charging device 50" and the BMU 30"a, etc., even if the charging device 50" is installed at a location distant from the monitoring terminal device 121".

Therefore, in addition to being able to easily grasp information about the battery 20a etc. and its charging device 50", it is possible to remotely change (update) the control parameters of the charging device 50" and the operating parameters of the voltage sensor 35 of the BMU 30"a etc. Also, it is possible to prevent mistakes in changing control parameters etc. that may occur when on-site workers are unfamiliar with changing such control parameters etc. Furthermore, the control parameters of the charging device 50" can be updated even when there is a shortage of on-site labor hours.

Although specific examples of the present invention have been described above in detail, these are merely examples and do not limit the scope of the claims. The technology described in the claims includes various modifications or changes to the above specific examples. Furthermore, the technical elements described in this specification or drawings exhibit technical utility alone or in various combinations, and are not limited to the combinations described in the claims at the time of filing. Furthermore, the technology exemplified in this specification or drawings achieves multiple objectives simultaneously, and achieving one of these objectives is itself technically useful. Note that the descriptions in parentheses in the [Explanation of symbols] column may clearly indicate the correspondence between the terms used in each of the above-mentioned embodiments and the terms described in the claims.

2, 2', 2"... Charging system 10, 10a, 10b, 10c... Forklift (electric vehicle)
20, 20a, 20b, 20c... Battery 30, 30", 30a, 30"a, 30b, 30"b, 30c... BMU (monitoring unit)
32...Control unit
33…Communications Department
50, 50', 50": charging device 61, 63: voltage sensor 62, 64: current sensor 65: acceleration sensor 66, 79, 81, 83: temperature sensor 67: humidity sensor 70: charging cable 90a: wireless communication line (wireless communication network)
90b... Wireless communication line (short-distance wireless communication line)
100...Internet (information and communication network)
120: Monitoring center 121, 121', 121": Monitoring terminal device (terminal device)
123...Display ( display unit )
125...Keyboard (input section)
AC...Alternating current power supply M...Monitoring person

Claims (3)

A terminal device connected to an information and communication network and having a display unit and an input unit;
a charging device provided at a location remote from the terminal device and connected to the information and communication network via a wireless communication network;
a monitoring device mounted on each of a plurality of electric vehicles, the monitoring device having a control unit that acquires individual information of the battery (hereinafter referred to as "individual battery information") and a communication unit that is capable of transmitting the individual information of the battery acquired by the control unit to the charging device by short-range wireless communication,
the charging device transmits to the terminal device the plurality of pieces of battery individual information and individual information of the charging device (hereinafter referred to as “charging device individual information”) transmitted from the monitoring devices of the plurality of electric vehicles ;
the terminal device displays the plurality of pieces of battery individual information and /or the charging device individual information transmitted from the charging device on the display unit , and transmits charging control information inputted from the input unit of the terminal device to the charging device via the wireless communication network;
The charging system according to claim 1, wherein the charging device controls charging of the batteries mounted on the plurality of electric vehicles based on the charging control information transmitted from the terminal device . the charging device determines whether or not there is an abnormality in the charging control based on the charging device individual information and the battery individual information received from the monitoring device, and when it is determined that there is an abnormality in the charging control in at least one of the charging device individual information and the battery individual information , transmits information regarding the abnormality in the charging control to the terminal device;
2. The charging system according to claim 1 , wherein the terminal device displays, on the display unit , information relating to the abnormality in the charging control received from the charging device together with the individual information of the charging device and the individual information of the plurality of batteries . 3. The charging system according to claim 1, wherein the terminal device displays the charging device individual information and the plurality of battery individual information transmitted from the charging device on the display unit, and is capable of changing a charging control parameter in the charging device individual information displayed on the display unit and/or a sensor operation parameter in the battery individual information .

Images