Panasonic Corporation

Kabushiki Kaisha Meidensha

Kazuyuki Shimada

Yasuyuki Yoshihara

Harumi Murochi

Tomoya Kikuchi

Susumu Yoshida

A charge control circuit includes a first acquisition unit that acquires a total discharge electric quantity of a lead storage battery, the total discharge electric quantity being separated into a first discharge electric quantity which is a discharge electric quantity of a discharge current having a current value of less than a predetermined level, and a second discharge electric quantity which is a discharge electric quantity of a discharge current having a current value of not less than the predetermined level, a computing unit that obtains a first and second charge electric quantities corresponding to the first and second discharge electric quantities respectively, and a charge electric quantity required for charging the lead storage battery as a sum of the obtained first and second charge electric quantities, and a charge control unit that controls a charge of the lead storage battery based on the charge electric quantity.

Charge control circuit, battery-operated device, charging apparatus and charging method

Disclosed is a charging control method including: a full charging step of charging a lead storage battery until the battery is fully charged; a refresh charging step of performing refresh charging of charging the lead storage battery with a predetermined refresh charging quantity of electricity after the lead storage battery has been fully charged; and a refresh charging quantity setting step of setting the refresh charging quantity of electricity in the refresh charging step for the lead storage battery which has been fully charged at a present time, depending on a temperature of the lead storage battery throughout a deficient charging period, the deficient charging period being a period from a time when the lead storage battery has been fully charged at a previous time to a time when the lead storage battery has been fully charged at the present time in the full charging step.

Lead storage battery charging control method, charging control circuit, power source device, and lead storage battery

A vehicle steering control apparatus for following a riderless vehicle over a reference path defined by a guide tape installed on a floor. A sensor assembly, mounted on the vehicle bottom surface, includes a plurality of sensor units arranged on a line. Each the sensor unit includes a downward-facing light emission diode operable to emit a light ray and a downward-facing photodiode sensitive to a light ray received thereon for generating a sensor signal corresponding to the sensed light intensity. The sensor signal from each the sensor unit is applied to a control circuit which provides a command signal corresponding to the received sensor signals. The riderless vehicle includes a steering device responsive to the command signal for correcting vehicle steering to aline the vehicle sufficient well over the reference path. The control apparatus includes a drive circuit for driving the sensor units in a time-sharing fashion causing sequential light emission of the light emission diodes in a predetermined sequence.

Growing community of inventors

Aichi, Japan

Kazuyuki Shimada