Real-time predictive control strategy for a plug-in hybrid electric powertrain

Model predictive control is a promising approach to exploit the potentials of modern concepts and to fulfill the automotive requirements. Since, it is able to handle constrained multi-input multi-output optimal control problems. However, when it comes to implementation, the MPC computational effort may cause a concern for real-time applications. To maintain the advantage of a predictive control approach and improve its implementation speed, we can solve the problem parametrically. In this paper, we design a power management strategy for a Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid powertrain (PHEV) using explicit model predictive control (eMPC) based on a new control-oriented model to improve the real-time implementation performance. By implementing the controller to a PHEV model through model and hardware-in-the-loop simulation, we get promising fuel economy as well as real-time simulation speed.     

Robust energy-to-peak sideslip angle estimation with applications to ground vehicles

In this paper, the observer design problem for the sideslip angle of ground vehicles is investigated. The sideslip angle is an important signal for the vehicle lateral stability, which is not measurable by using an affordable physical sensor. Therefore, we aim to estimate the sideslip angle with the yaw rate measurements by employing the vehicle dynamics. The nonlinear lateral dynamics is modeled firstly. As the tyre model is nonlinear and the road adhesive coefficient is subject to a large variation, the nonlinear lateral dynamics is transformed into an uncertain model. Considering the variation of longitudinal velocity, an uncertain linear-parameter-varying (LPV) system is obtained. Based on the LPV model, a gain-scheduling observer is proposed and the observer gain can be determined with off-line computation and on-line computation. The off-line computation includes the calculation of a set of linear matrix inequalities and the on-line computation contains several algebraic operations. The proposed design methodology is applied to a four-wheel-independent-drive electric vehicle in simulation. It infers from different maneuvers that the designed observer has a good performance on estimating the sideslip angle.     

同频段混合信号中的无人机信号盲检测识别

无人机信号的探测识别技术是应对无人机黑飞滥用的关键技术之一。在实际信号监测环境中，经常会接收到多个信号的混合信号，它们在时域和频域上混叠且各信号分量调制样式相同。为解决在同频段混合信号中检测识别出无人机信号的问题，提出了一种通过谱特征分析判断无人机信号存在性的方法。分别采用基于二次方谱特征的无人机图传和WiFi混合信号检测识别算法以及基于频谱带宽特征的多无人机混合信号检测识别算法，通过对射频电路采集的信号进行仿真验证，实现了从同频段混合信号中检测识别出无人机信号分量。理论分析和实验测试结果证实了所提检测识别算法的有效性。     

Understanding attitudes of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle adopters in Japan

As of January 2021, Japan had the world's largest hydrogen station network with merely 4600 hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles (HFCVs) on roads, as compared to the 9000 HFCVs in the US, with only one-third of the hydrogen refueling stations in Japan. To understand behavioral differences among Japanese adopters, we administered a survey, in cooperation with public and private sector stakeholders, involving 89 private HFCV adopters in the Aichi Prefectural region, which hosts the largest number of HFCVs and refueling stations in Japan. Results suggest that HFCV adopters have a higher socioeconomic status than non-adopters, are mostly male in their 50s and above, and have a higher interest in new vehicle fuel technology. HFCV adopters who leased and bought vehicles were similar in terms of socioeconomic status, with differences in attitudes toward governmental incentives. The lack of refueling stations and station business hours restrict HFCV adopters from continuing with this fuel technology.     

Safety Watchdog for universally safe gaseous high pressure hydrogen fillings

The fast filling time for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles makes them a user-friendly zero emission alternative to fossil fuel powered vehicles. The filling, by compressing gas into the vehicle tanks, produces heat that can be damaging. There are different protocols, standardized or the intellectual property of station operators, dedicated for different specific applications taking into account the specificity of the vessel and customer requirements. Standard protocols are developed for worst case conditions across a broad range of vehicle tank sizes and configurations. These worst case conditions do not result in the most economical equipment solution for hydrogen fueling. To ensure safety for different existing and future potential protocols a new “Safety Watchdog” approach is suggested in the current paper. This “Safety Watchdog” monitors the fueling process boundary conditions independently from the main process controls. The decoupling between the watchdog and the protocol allows use of protocols that are more economically beneficial while ensuring full safety conditions. The current paper provides a mathematical formulation of the Safety Watchdog as well as its validation versus modeling and field experimental data.     

Effects of Smart Charging of Multiple Electric Vehicles in Reducing Power Generation Fuel Cost

The high penetration of variable sources of renewable power generation will lead to operational difficulties in supply/demand balancing in the entire power system. The mass deployment of electric vehicles (EVs) and plug‐in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) will also cause significant changes in electricity demand. Therefore, controlling and managing the charging time of EVs/PHEVs are effective approaches that are imperative for improving balancing in power system operation. We assumed travel patterns for EVs in a model of the future Tokyo power system and analyzed the power system loads, including the charging load of the EVs, under several charging control scenarios. We verified that charging time controls are substantially effective for reducing the fuel costs in the power system. Further, we found that load leveling under a multicar charging management scenario gave the best results in terms of the fuel costs in all cases.     

Electricity supply auctions: Understanding the consequences of the product definition

We study the impact of product definition in electricity auctions. Recognizing the key role of the auction rules—pay as bid, uniform—the definition of the product itself emerges also as a critical step. Poorly designed products may impact both the market performance and the physical operation of the system. We investigate the impacts that the product definition can have on the market outcomes. A product definition implemented in some electricity markets is used to unveil critical aspects that must be considered when electricity products are defined. Our results provide guidelines for improving the product definition in electricity auctions.     

A Restart Control Method for Position Sensorless PMSM Drive Systems Without Potential Transformer for Railway Vehicle Traction

This paper proposes a restart control method for position sensorless PMSM drive systems without a potential transformer for railway vehicle traction. This method can estimate the initial rotor speed and position under coasting conditions over the entire speed range. The method can also be used when the back‐EMF voltage is higher than the inverter DC link voltage. The proposed method is verified by experiments using a 200‐kW PMSM.     

Selection of features from power theories to compose NILM datasets

The load disaggregation concept is gaining attention due to the increasing need for optimized energy utilization and detailed characterization of electricity consumption profiles, especially through Nonintrusive Load Monitoring (NILM) approaches. This occurs since knowledge about individualized consumption per appliance allows to create strategies striving for energy savings, improvement of energy efficiency, and creating energy awareness to consumers. Moreover, by using feature extraction to devise energy disaggregation, one can achieve accurate identification of electric appliances. However, even though several literature works propose distinct features to be utilized, no consensus exists in the literature about the most appropriate set of features that ensure high accuracy on load disaggregation. Thus, beyond presenting a critical analysis of some significant features often selected in the literature, this paper proposes identifying the most relevant ones considering collinearity and machine learning algorithms. The results show that high-performance metrics can be achieved with fewer features than usually adopted in the literature. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the Conservative Power Theory can offer the most representative features for appliance identification, leading to efficient power consumption disaggregation.     

Experimental investigation of supercapacitor based regenerative energy storage for a fuel cell vehicle equipped with an alternator

Recently, researchers have devoted more attention to supercapacitors (SCs) to integrate with batteries in energy storage systems (ESSs) for vehicle applications. In this study, we attempted to characterize the use of SCs in the ESS for a PEM fuel cell vehicle equipped with an alternator to maximize the performance of regenerative braking. We applied lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and SCs as energy storage devices to examine their effect on ESS. Then we used a hysteresis brake to apply controllable braking force on the flywheel to form hybrid braking (HB) and made efforts to study its behavior to suggest a braking control strategy. We also ran the whole system over the rotational speed to cover the range of driving speed. At last, we sized the SCs for the most commonly used fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) in Korea, i.e., Hyundai NEXO, based on the results obtained from the above study by alternator efficiencies.