Abstract: Smart batteries and smart battery systems are disclosed. A smart battery may include an energy-storage unit providing a cathode tab and an anode tab. The smart battery may also include a circuit integrated with the energy-storage unit. The circuit may be configured to provide electrical connections to the cathode tab and the anode tab of the energy-storage unit to an external device; measure a current, a voltage, a temperature, and/or an internal resistance of the energy-storage unit; control an input/output property of the energy-storage unit; and establish a data connection with the external device.

Abstract: A battery network is disclosed. The battery network may include a plurality of battery blades. Each battery blade may include a plurality of battery cells; a connection mechanism configured to establish an adjustable connection between the plurality of battery cells; and a processor in communication with the connection mechanism and the plurality of battery cells. The processor may be configured to control the connection mechanism at least partially based on a state of charge of at least one of the plurality of battery cells, and the processor of each battery blade of the plurality of battery blades may be further configured to communicate with each other to support operation of the battery network as an integrated electric power source.

Abstract: A distributed power supply system and a method for managing such a distributed power supply system is disclosure. The method may include: for each power storage unit i of the plurality of power storage units, determining whether power storage unit i have sufficient status of charge (SOC) based on SOC of the power storage unit i (Ci), and load of the power storage unit i (Li); identifying a set of power storage units that have insufficient SOC; and adjusting output power of the power storage units that have sufficient SOC to provide supplemental power to the set of power storage units that have insufficient SOC.

Abstract: Cloud based energy systems and methods for managing the cloud based energy systems are disclosed. A cloud based energy system (may be referred to simply as “energy cloud”) in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure may be configured to share its energy resources and data to various energy-producing, energy-consuming, and/or energy-storage devices connected to the energy cloud. Such a configuration may enable ubiquitous, on-demand access to a shared pool of configurable energy resources, providing users with various capabilities to store and to retrieve energy as needed.

Abstract: A distributed power supply system and a method for managing such a distributed power supply system is disclosure. The method may include: for each power storage unit i of the plurality of power storage units, determining whether power storage unit i have sufficient status of charge (SOC) based on SOC of the power storage unit i (Ci), and load of the power storage unit i (Li); identifying a set of power storage units that have insufficient SOC; and adjusting output power of the power storage units that have sufficient SOC to provide supplemental power to the set of power storage units that have insufficient SOC.

Abstract: A method for providing state of charge (SOC) estimations is disclosed. The method may comprise: receiving a battery having a nominated capacity; measuring an initial SOC of the battery; discharging the battery and measuring a sequence of time-based discharge characteristics; measuring a total operating time and a total consumed capacity; providing a set of relationship equations derived from a circuit-based battery model having a variable capacitor; utilizing a computing module to perform data fitting of the set of relationship equations based on: the initial SOC, the nominated capacity, the total operating time, the total consumed capacity, and the sequence of discharge characteristics, the computing module being configured for determining values for a plurality of parameters of the set of relationship equations through said data fitting; and obtaining a remaining capacity estimation equation based on the set of relationship equations after the values for the plurality of parameters are determined.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention relate to methods and apparatus for a dynamic reconfigurable battery system for supporting power-aware computing. The present invention allows each cell of a multi-cell battery to be charged and/or discharged separately depending on an external load that is applied to the system. The present invention, the dynamic reconfigurable multi-cell battery system, may support dynamic voltage scaling (DVS) by providing fine-tuned voltage levels to satisfy the various power requirements imposed by different system components. Another embodiment of the present invention includes taking advantage of power requirement diversity in a power-aware computing platform to fully utilize a battery's capacity. Also, this system is adaptable to isolate fully discharged or failed cells from other functioning cells. The dynamic reconfigurable design of the present invention provides a solution for an emergent power supply for mission-critical tasks.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for predicting an optimum transmission frame size in a wireless computer network. The method comprises assessing transmission channel quality in the network, calculating an optimum length for the transmission frame, adjusting the length of the transmission frame to the predicted optimum length, transmitting the frame at its adjusted length and assessing the quality of the transmission of the frame. Prediction of the optimum frame size employs a Kalman filter which employs the parameters of bit error rate and random processing noise in the calculation of the predicted optimum frame length.