Mechatronics in Sustainable Mobility: Two Electric Vehicle Applications

Abstract

In this paper, we first review the role that mecha tronics and advanced control have in modern road vehicles, in particular their present and potential impact on sustainable mobility. We then illustrate this with two research examples. Firstly, we show how electronic science, control system tech niques and computing manifest themselves in the design of an advanced battery management algorithm designed to estimate two unmeasurable but vital quantities, State of Charge (SoC) and State of Health (SoH): this allows better utilisation of battery capacity, with scope for advanced prognostics and diagnostics. Secondly, we show how multi-domain modelling integrating mechanical science and electronic science can be used to express component ageing as part of a set of vehicle-level performance objectives and used to explore the trade-offs between conflicting requirements, aiding sensible design choices. O Automotive Engineering O Mechatronics O Electric Vehicles O Battery Estimation and Health O Electric Vehicle Component Ageing Stefano Longo (MSc, PhD, MIEEE, MIET) received his MSc in Control Systems from the University of Sheffield in 2007 and completed his PhD in Control Systems at the University of Bristol in 2011. His PhD thesis was awarded the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Control and Automation Prize for significant achievements in the area of control engineering. In November 2010 he was appointed to the position of Research Associate at Imperial College London. He was appointed to the position of lecturer in Vehicles' Electrical and Electronic Systems at Cranfield University in the summer of 2012. Daniel Auger is an academic at Cranfield University, where he teaches automotive mechatronics and researches automotive energy storage, optimisation and advanced control. After studying engineering at Cambridge, Daniel joined AMS (formerly Marconi Radar, now BAE Systems) where he worked as a senior engineer and design authority on the Seawolf Mid-Life Update (SWMLU) programme. Following this, he joined MathWorks as a senior consultant, managing and working on a variety of projects. Dr Auger joined Cranfield at the start of 2013 as a lecturer in advanced control & optimisation in the School of Engineering's Centre for Automotive Engineering.