Patents by Inventor Douglas D. Chidester

Douglas D. Chidester has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20230006266
    Abstract: Systems and methods for storing energy for use by an electric vehicle are disclosed. Systems can include an electric vehicle battery pack including a rack configured to couple a plurality of independently removable battery strings to the vehicle, the battery strings configured to be selectively coupled in parallel to a vehicle power bus. The battery strings may include a housing, a plurality of electrochemical cells disposed within the housing, a circuit for electrically connecting the electrochemical cells, a positive high-voltage connector, a negative high-voltage connector, a switch within the housing, and a string control unit configured to control the switch. Each battery string can include a coolant inlet and a coolant outlet configured to couple with and sealingly uncouple from an external coolant supply conduit and an external coolant return conduit, and an auxiliary connector configured to couple with an external communications system and/or an external low-voltage power supply.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 22, 2022
    Publication date: January 5, 2023
    Inventors: Douglas D. Chidester, Nicholas John Sampson
  • Patent number: 11539087
    Abstract: The present disclosure is directed to energy storage systems for vehicles. In some aspects, the energy storage system may be used to power an electric automobile. The energy storage system may include a plurality of individual battery cells. The cells may be cylindrical and have a positive and negative terminal on the same side. The cells may be physically and/or electrically organized into bricks. The bricks may be physically and/or electrically organized into modules. The modules may be physically and/or electrically organized into strings. The strings may be physically and/or electrically organized into a pack. In some embodiments, packs, strings, modules and/or bricks may include flexible circuitry and/or may be liquid cooled.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2022
    Assignee: Faraday & Future Inc.
    Inventors: Douglas D. Chidester, Nicholas John Sampson
  • Patent number: 11381472
    Abstract: Methods, systems, computer-readable media, and apparatuses are presented for computer-assisted visualization of network devices. One example involves receiving a plurality of standardized network description files describing a plurality of vehicular communication networks connecting a plurality of electronic control units (ECU) for a vehicle. Each of the plurality of standardized network description files may describe a vehicular communication network in the plurality of vehicular communication networks. Each vehicular communication network may comprise a subset of the plurality of ECUs and one or more network communications paths interconnecting the subset of ECUs. The example can further involve automatically generating, based on the standardized network description files, a visual topology representation of the plurality of vehicular communication networks connecting to the plurality of ECUs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2022
    Assignee: Faraday & Future Inc.
    Inventors: Abhijit Bansal, Douglas D. Chidester, Shan Deng, Jana Mahen Fernando, Matthew K. Lubbers
  • Patent number: 11258104
    Abstract: Systems and methods for storing energy for use by an electric vehicle are disclosed. Systems can include an electric vehicle battery pack including a rack configured to couple a plurality of independently removable battery strings to the vehicle, the battery strings configured to be selectively coupled in parallel to a vehicle power bus. The battery strings may include a housing, a plurality of electrochemical cells disposed within the housing, a circuit for electrically connecting the electrochemical cells, a positive high-voltage connector, a negative high-voltage connector, a switch within the housing, and a string control unit configured to control the switch. Each battery string can include a coolant inlet and a coolant outlet configured to couple with and sealingly uncouple from an external coolant supply conduit and an external coolant return conduit, and an auxiliary connector configured to couple with an external communications system and/or an external low-voltage power supply.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 22, 2022
    Assignee: Faraday & Future Inc.
    Inventors: Douglas D. Chidester, Nicholas John Sampson
  • Patent number: 10421367
    Abstract: An adaptive and adjustable isolation fault testing of a multi-string battery of an electric vehicle is disclosed. The isolation fault testing can be performed in an adjustable or predetermined loop having dedicated time windows for respective battery strings in compliance with the system requirements, specification, and regulatory regime.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2016
    Date of Patent: September 24, 2019
    Assignee: FARADAY & FUTURE INC.
    Inventors: John Alser, Douglas D. Chidester, Anil Paryani, Phillip John Weicker
  • Patent number: 10259337
    Abstract: An adaptive multi-string battery for an electric vehicle is disclosed herein. The battery strings can adaptively be connected to the power bus bars based on the output voltage to be discharged with load. During operation of the vehicle, the voltage, current, and estimate charge can be constantly monitored to change the connected status of the battery strings to the power buses to allow connecting or disconnecting of the battery strings adaptively.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2019
    Assignee: FARADAY & FUTURE INC.
    Inventors: John Alser, Douglas D. Chidester, Anil Paryani, Phillip John Weicker
  • Publication number: 20190052543
    Abstract: Methods, systems, computer-readable media, and apparatuses are presented for computer-assisted visualization of network devices. One example involves receiving a plurality of standardized network description files describing a plurality of vehicular communication networks connecting a plurality of electronic control units (ECU) for a vehicle. Each of the plurality of standardized network description files may describe a vehicular communication network in the plurality of vehicular communication networks. Each vehicular communication network may comprise a subset of the plurality of ECUs and one or more network communications paths interconnecting the subset of ECUs. The example can further involve automatically generating, based on the standardized network description files, a visual topology representation of the plurality of vehicular communication networks connecting to the plurality of ECUs.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 29, 2017
    Publication date: February 14, 2019
    Inventors: Abhijit Bansal, Douglas D. Chidester, Shan Deng, Jana Mahen Fernando, Matthew K. Lubbers
  • Publication number: 20190034336
    Abstract: The embodiments of the present invention relate to a file system, and more particularly, a file system compatible with multiple types of non-volatile memory for safety-critical embedded systems, such as an Electronic Control Unit (ECU) of an automobile. Some examples of the disinitiate file closure include an ECU having RAM and non-volatile system memory managed by a file system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 25, 2017
    Publication date: January 31, 2019
    Inventors: Richard Edward SLINDEE, Jana Mahen FERNANDO, Douglas D. CHIDESTER
  • Publication number: 20180254536
    Abstract: The present disclosure is directed to energy storage systems for vehicles. In some aspects, the energy storage system may be used to power an electric automobile. The energy storage system may include a plurality of individual battery cells. The cells may be cylindrical and have a positive and negative terminal on the same side. The cells may be physically and/or electrically organized into bricks. The bricks may be physically and/or electrically organized into modules. The modules may be physically and/or electrically organized into strings. The strings may be physically and/or electrically organized into a pack. In some embodiments, packs, strings, modules and/or bricks may include flexible circuitry and/or may be liquid cooled.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 29, 2017
    Publication date: September 6, 2018
    Inventors: Douglas D. Chidester, Nicholas John Sampson
  • Publication number: 20180062988
    Abstract: A vehicle can use controlled area network (CAN) buses for communications within a subsystem but connect different subsystems using Ethernet connections. For example, a network interface (NIC) of a subsystem can receive a CAN message from a CAN bus and incorporate the CAN message into a user diagram protocol (UDP) message which can be then packaged into an Ethernet packet. The UDP message may include a table of contents (TOC). The TOC may include the message ID and the length of the CAN message. Once a NIC receives the message, the receiving NIC can extract the UDP message from the Ethernet packet, parse through the TOC to identify a CAN message relevant to the control units of the receiving NIC's subsystem, extract the relevant CAN message based on the TOC, and put the CAN message onto CAN buses to be sent to destination CAN devices.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2016
    Publication date: March 1, 2018
    Inventors: Mayank Sikaria, Douglas D. Chidester, Caio D. Gubel
  • Publication number: 20170120771
    Abstract: An adaptive and adjustable isolation fault testing of a multi-string battery of an electric vehicle is disclosed. The isolation fault testing can be performed in an adjustable or predetermined loop having dedicated time windows for respective battery strings in compliance with the system requirements, specification, and regulatory regime.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 27, 2016
    Publication date: May 4, 2017
    Inventors: John Alser, Douglas D. Chidester, Anil Paryani, Phillip John Weicker
  • Publication number: 20170120772
    Abstract: An adaptive multi-string battery for an electric vehicle is disclosed herein. The battery strings can adaptively be connected to the power bus bars based on the output voltage to be discharged with load. During operation of the vehicle, the voltage, current, and estimate charge can be constantly monitored to change the connected status of the battery strings to the power buses to allow connecting or disconnecting of the battery strings adaptively.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 28, 2016
    Publication date: May 4, 2017
    Inventors: John Alser, Douglas D. Chidester, Anil Paryani, Phillip John Weicker
  • Publication number: 20170005371
    Abstract: Systems and methods for storing energy for use by an electric vehicle are disclosed. Systems can include an electric vehicle battery pack including a rack configured to couple a plurality of independently removable battery strings to the vehicle, the battery strings configured to be selectively coupled in parallel to a vehicle power bus. The battery strings may include a housing, a plurality of electrochemical cells disposed within the housing, a circuit for electrically connecting the electrochemical cells, a positive high-voltage connector, a negative high-voltage connector, a switch within the housing, and a string control unit configured to control the switch. Each battery string can include a coolant inlet and a coolant outlet configured to couple with and sealingly uncouple from an external coolant supply conduit and an external coolant return conduit, and an auxiliary connector configured to couple with an external communications system and/or an external low-voltage power supply.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 24, 2016
    Publication date: January 5, 2017
    Inventors: Douglas D. Chidester, Nicholas John Sampson