Usage of Telematics for Battery and Vehicle State Monitoring 2011-01-0748

This paper presents Telematics Battery Monitoring (TBM). TBM is a multi-faceted approach of collecting and analyzing electric power and vehicle data used to ultimately determine battery state of charge (SOC) and battery state of health (SOH) in both pre- and post-sale environments. Traditional methods of battery SOC analysis include labor intensive processes such as going out to the site of individual vehicle(s), gaining access to the vehicle battery, and then after the vehicle electrical system obtains its quiescent current level, performing a battery voltage check. This time-consuming manual method can practically only cover a small percentage of the vehicle population. In using the vehicle communication capabilities of Telematics, electric power and vehicle data are downloaded, compiled, and post-processed using decision-making software tools. This allows for automation of the labor intensive manual data collection processes and makes possible for an extremely large number of vehicles to be included in the data analysis. The TBM capability includes audits of assembly plant processes, logistics, and dealership environments. It also involves diagnostics and prognostics of inadvertent loads, early detection of field issues, verification of software operation and calibrations, and battery life prediction. Telematics Battery Monitoring has many applications well beyond the battery and electric power system itself, a small set of which will also be discussed in this paper.