公开(公告)号：US20220203841A1

公开(公告)日：2022-06-30

申请号：US17137950

申请日：2020-12-30

Applicant: LOON LLC

Inventor： Sailesh Prabhu ,  Jacob Roberts

IPC: B60L8/00 ,  B60L58/13

Abstract: The technology relates to managing nighttime power for solar-powered vehicles. A system may include a sunrise estimator for estimating a time until a next sunrise, a battery state estimator for estimating a battery state, a critical battery estimator for determining a battery threshold, below which subsystems may be powered off, and an alert monitor to determine, and communicate to the solar-powered vehicle, a charge threshold and a restart charge threshold. A method may include operating a vehicle in an operational power mode, estimating a time until a next sunrise, estimating a battery state, determining a preservation battery threshold based on the estimated time until the next sunrise and the estimated battery state, determining a minimum charge threshold based on the preservation battery threshold, monitoring a battery charge level of the vehicle throughout the night, and if the battery charge level drops below the minimum charge threshold, implementing a preservation power mode.

公开(公告)号：US20210344215A1

公开(公告)日：2021-11-04

申请号：US16863883

申请日：2020-04-30

Applicant: LOON LLC

Inventor： Sailesh Prabhu ,  Jean-Laurent Plateau ,  Nidhi Gulia ,  Benjamin Wojtowicz

IPC: H02J7/35 ,  B64C19/00 ,  H02J7/00 ,  G06F30/34

Abstract: The technology relates to power saving modes for subsystems in solar powered aircraft. An onboard subsystem of an aircraft includes a first processor configured to monitor a state of the subsystem and generate state data; a heating component configured to heat the subsystem to at least a minimum viable temperature; an operational component; and a hardware controller configured to control power to the heating component, the first processor, and the operational component, at least during a preservation mode and a monitoring mode. The subsystem draws a moderate amount of power when the heating component is on and a minimum threshold amount of power in the preservation mode. The subsystem draws a moderate amount of power in the monitoring mode in order to generate and communicate state data by the first processor, a moderate amount of power being lower than the higher amount of power required to operate the operational component.