274 Asian Journal of Control, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 274-280, September 2006 -Brief Paper- OPTIMAL CONTROL OF PARALLEL HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLES BASED ON THEORY OF SWITCHED SYSTEM Licun Fang and Shiyin Qin ABSTRACT The focus of this paper is the control strategy used to control general parallel hybrid electric vehicles (HEV). The torque split control problem of HEV is formulated as the optimal control of a switched system. A model-based strategy for fuel-optimal control is presented. The optimal control problem of such a switched system is formulated as a two-stage optimization problem. Dynamic programming is utilized to determine the optimal control action that minimizes the cost function. Simulated results indicate that this method is effective. KeyWords: Hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), optimal control, dynamic programming, switched system. I. INTRODUCTION The most challenging goals facing the automotive industry are increasing fuel economy and reducing emissions. There are a series of constraints that are imposed not only by our society but also by cooperative agreements and legislative efforts [1]. HEVs are beginning to demonstrate their capability to satisfy these requirements, and they will become a viable alternative to conventional vehicles in the future [2,3]. The hybrid powertrain is an integrated system that may consist of the following components: an internal combustion engine (IC engine), a battery pack, and an electric machine (EM) which can be utilized as a traction motor or generator. In such a system, each sub-system is also a complex system which has its own functionality and desired performance. Moreover, all of the sub-systems need to be coordinated in an optimal manner to achieve the desired objectives. Consequently, an integrated vehiclelevel controller is required to accomplish such tasks [4]. Recent reports on HEVS have placed great emphasis on the control strategy, and several approaches to it have been Manuscript received July 18, 2005; revised January 25, 2006, accepted May 15, 2006. The authors are with the School of Automation Science and Electrical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100083, China (e-mail: licun_fang@buaa.edu.cn, qsy@buaa.edu.cn). proposed. The power management strategies can be roughly classified into three types: static optimization methods [5,6], global optimization methods based on dynamic programming [7,8], and rule-based control approaches [9,10]. HEV systems simultaneously exhibit several kinds of dynamic behavior, such as continuous-time dynamics, discrete-time dynamics, jump phenomena, switching and the like. Therefore, an HEV is a typical hybrid dynamical system, and many challenges exist in the design of a vehicle system controller for an HEV [4]. The focus of this paper is the control strategy used to control general parallel HEVs. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 will describe the hierarchical architecture of the HEV system. The different powertrain components models used for simulation and control are presented in section 3. The optimal control problem is solved in section 4. In section 5, a case study investigated through simulation is presented, and the results obtained in optimizing the control of fuel consumption based on the optimal strategy proposed in this paper are given. Conclusions are drawn in section 6. II. CONTROL SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE An HEV is a typical hybrid dynamical system [4]. Most hybrid dynamical systems have been designed using the concept of centralized and distributed control. A L. Fang and S. Qin: Optimal Control of Parallel Hybrid Electric Vehicles Based on Theory of Switched Systems two-level hierarchical control architecture [11] is used in the synthesis of the control law for the hybrid powertrain shown in Fig. 1. The supervisory powertrain controller (SPC) represents a high-level vehicle control system that can coordinate the overall powertrain to satisfy certain performance indices. Based on the driver’s demand and operating parameter feedback signals of the vehicle and its components, the SPC must determine the desired propelling torque distribution between the IC engine and EM, or the desired brake torque distribution between the EM and friction brake system, and the gear position; therefore, the main function of the SPC is to determine the desired output of various sub-systems according to driver’s commands, system parameter feedback signals and a pre-programmed control strategy. Different control strategies will result in different fuel economy and emission characteristics. The focus of this paper is the control strategy used to control general parallel HEVs. In order to narrow our research scope, only a double shaft parallel powertrain is considered. In this configuration, the engine power and electric motor power can provide torque to the wheels separately through the transmission. It should be pointed out that the strategies for dealing with this situation can also be applied to other powertrain arrangements by making appropriate amendments. Figure 2 shows a schematic diagram of the double shaft parallel HEV system considered in this paper. Driver Supervisory powertrain control CAN bus Engine controller Engine Motor /Battery controller Clutch Motor Trans. controller Brake controller Trans. Vehicle The following components are utilized in the configuration: • spark ignition direct injection engine: 50kW; • permanent magnet motor: 10kW; • NiMh battery: 20kW, 2kWh; • 5speed automated manual transmission. III. SYSTEM MODEL A quality dynamic model is paramount for the development of an effective control strategy, especially when dealing with a complex coordinated control problem such as a parallel HEV. An HEV powertrain dynamic model describing key system components can be a significant aid to the development of the control law and provides insight into the dominant dynamic effects in the control law synthesis process. To this end, the components of a parallel HEV are modeled. However, developing a vehicle controller is the key objective of this paper, so simplified models are presented. Dynamic models of various primary HEV components, such as the ICE, motor, battery, transmission and vehicle, are described below. 3.1 Engine To avoid the dependence on the availability of specific efficiency maps for the IC engine and the electric motor while optimizing and formulating the HEV optimal control strategy, a universal representation, the Willans lines model of an IC engine and motor, is utilized [12]. A brief summary of the parametrization is given in the following paragraphs. The scalability of an IC engine is achieved through the use of two engine sizing parameters, the displacement Vd and the stroke S. Here, some concepts and corresponding variables, such as the mean piston speed cm, the available mean effective pressure pma and the mean effective pressure pme, are introduced as follows: cm = Sωe , π Battery Fig. 1. Hierarchical control architecture of an HEV. Pma = Reduction gears Motor Gear box Wheel Mechanical coupling Pme = Wheel Clutch Battery Fig. 2. Block diagram of the parallel HEV. ICE 275 4π QLHV m f Vd ωe 4π Te , Vd (1) , (2) (3) where ωe is the ICE angular speed, Te is the ICE effective f is the fuel mass flow rate, QLHV is the fuel torque, m low heating value, and e is the “inner” ability to transform chemical to mechanical energy. The engine’s efficiency can be approximated by an affine relation between the torque and fuel mass available in one cycle: Asian Journal of Control, Vol. 8, No. 3, September 2006 276 Te = e ⋅ QLHV m f ωe − Tloss , (4) where Tloss represents the inner losses. The resulting affine function shows the dominant effect observed in all ICEs, i.e., the dramatic decrease in efficiency as the torque output decreases. Based on Eqs. (1) ~ (3) and some necessary substitution in Eq. (4), a dimensionless definition of engine efficiency η can be obtained: pme , pma (5) where Pme = ePma − Pml , (6) η= and pml denotes the inner loss (see [12] for more details). 3.2 Motor In this section, the same concepts that were introduced above for an IC engine are developed for an EM. Let pem be the available electrical power. Then, for each time instant, the following equation defines the efficiency of the EM: ωem Tem, e = η (⋅) pem = η (⋅) Vi , (7) where ωem and Tem, e are the EM angular speed and effective torque, respectively; V and i are the voltage and current, respectively. Again, as a first approach, the motor’s efficiency can be approximated by assuming that an affine relationship between the effective torque and input energy exists: Tem, e = eem ⋅ V ⋅ i − Tem, loss ωem = eem Tem, a − Tem, loss , ωw (k ) = ωe (k ) ωem (k ) = . ρ R(k ) (9) The second one is the torque relation: Tw (k ) = R (k ) ⋅ Te (k ) ⋅ η gb + ρ Tm (k ) η red , (10) where ωw is the wheel angular speed, R(k) is the gear ratio, ρ is the reduction gear ratio between the EM and the wheels, Tw(k) is the torque of the wheels, and Te(k) and Tm(k) are the output torque from the engine and the motor, respectively. η gb denotes the efficiency of the gear box, and η red is that of the reduction gears. 3.5 Vehicle The modeling of the vehicle dynamics is derived from the basic equation for solid-body motions (Newton’s Second Law): 1 Dair CD A f V 2 2 dV + Mi + Mg sin (θ) , dt F = MgCr + (11) where F is the force required at the vehicle wheels to reach a certain acceleration at speed V ; Mg, Cr , Dair, CD , Af , Mi , and θ are the mass of the vehicle, the local acceleration of gravity, the coefficient of the rolling resistance between the tires and the road surface, the air density, the coefficient of the aerodynamic drag for the vehicle in the traveling direction, the frontal area of the vehicle, the inertial mass of the vehicle, including the rotational inertia contribution, and the gradient of the road, respectively. The vehicle acceleration a and speed V are given by (8) where eem, Tem, a and Tem, loss are the “inner” ability to transform electrical energy into mechanical energy, based on the available mean effective torque of the EM and inner loss (see [12] for more details). 3.3 Battery The practical implementation of this control strategy is dependent on the availability of an on-line SOC (State Of Charge) estimator. The battery performance, such as the voltage, current and efficiency, from a purely electric viewpoint, is the outcome of thermally dependent electrochemical processes that are quite complicated. A model based upon open circuit voltage is used in this paper. Further details about this method can be found in [13]. 3.4 Transmission Two main relations describe the parallel double-shaft arrangement of an HEV. The first one is the speed relation: 1 η gb R(k ) T / r − MgCr − Dair CD Af V 2 − mg sin(θ) 2 a= , Mi (12) V = ∫ adt , (13) where r is the radius of the wheels. IV. OPTIMAL CONTROL 4.1 Problem Formulation In the operation process of a powertrain, the transmission controller determines the gear shifting sequence and selects the appropriate transmission gear based on the transmission output speed, the position of the acceleration pedal and braking pedal, the current gear position and the clutch state. The powertrain system can be formulated as a switched system. As is well-known, a discrete-time switched system can be described as a set of piece-wise L. Fang and S. Qin: Optimal Control of Parallel Hybrid Electric Vehicles Based on Theory of Switched Systems difference equations [14]: Te _ min ( we (k )) ≤ Te ≤ Te _ max ( we ( k )) , x( k + 1) = f ( x(k ), u ( k ), m(k )) ⎧ f1 ( x( k ), u (k )), if m( k ) = 1 ⎪ =⎨ # ⎪ f ( x (k ), u (k )), if m(k ) = I , ⎩ I (14) (15) where Twh_req is the required torque of the vehicle. For a vehicle control system, once a driving cycle is given, the wheel speed profile wwh_req is known, and the torque Twh_req required to follow the speed profile can be determined in each time step by inversely solving the dynamic equations (11) ~ (13). The practical wheel speed wwh can be detected by a speed sensor. Problem 1. The power control of an HEV can be formulated as an optimal control problem, in which the optimization goal is to find the control input Te(k) and switching sequence of gear shifting g(k) needed to minimize a cost function in a given driving cycle: ⎧ N −1 J = ψ( x ( N )) + ⎨ ∑ L( x( k ), Te (k ), m(k )) ⎩ k =0 N −1 ⎫ + ∑ M k ( xi , xi' ) ⎬ , k =0 ⎭ (17) where Te_min (we(k)) and Te_max (we(k)) are the minimal and maximal output torque of the ICE at speed we(k); where x(k) is a state vector of the system, u(k) is a vector of the continuous-time control variables, and m(k) ∈{1, 2, …I} is a finite integer set in which every element corresponds to a kind of operating mode with event attributes. An HEV can be considered as a special case of this model. For a vehicle control system, the continuous-time state vector is (V, SOC); the control variables u(k) are Te(k) and Tm(k); m(k) is the gear position, which is a discrete-event state variable. If the state variables and control variables are inserted into Eq. (14), a set of piece-wise difference equations for an HEV can be obtained. It should be pointed out that the motor torque becomes a dependent variable instead of a control variable due to the equality constraint on the driveline torque: Twh _ req = Te ( k ) + Tm (k ) , 277 (16) where N is the duration of the driving cycle, ψ (x (N)) is the cost function associated with the error in the terminal SOC, L(x (k), Te(k), m (k)) is the instantaneous fuel consumption rate, and xi, xi represent different gear positions. Mk(xi, xi) is the cost function of mode switching between xi and xi; in order to simplify the problem, the cost function of mode switching is assumed to be a constant set and to take values from this set. In order to ensure drivability of the vehicle and safe/smooth operation of each subsystem, it is necessary to satisfy the following constraints: we _ min ≤ we (k ) ≤ we _ max , (18) where we_min and we_max are the minimal and maximal speeds of the ICE; SOCmin ≤ SOC(k ) ≤ SOCmax , (19) where SOCmin and SOCmax are the lower limit and upper limit of the SOC of the battery; Tm _ min ( wm (k ), SOC( k )) ≤ Tm (k ) ≤ Tm _ max ( wm (k ), SOC(k )) , (20) where Tm_min (wm(k), SOC(k)) and Tm_max (wm(k), SOC(k)) are the minimal and maximal output torque of the EM at speed wm(k) for the battery SOC(k). 4.2 Solution For the optimal control problem of a switched system, the following conditions must be satisfied [15]. Condition 1. An optimal solution (σ*, u*) exists, where σ* is the optimal switching sequence and u* is the optimal input control. Condition 2. For any given switching sequence σ, there exists a corresponding u* = u* (σ) such that Jσ(u) = J(σ, u) is minimized. If the above conditions are satisfied, then, the following equation holds: min J (σ, u ) = min min J (σ, u ) . σ∈∑ , u∈U σ∈∑ u∈U (21) Therefore, the optimal control problem of a switched system can be formulated as a two-stage optimization problem. Stage 1. (a) Fix the total number of switches to be K, fix the order of the active subsystem, let the minimum value of J with respect to u be a function of the K switching instants, i.e., J1 = J1(t1, t2, …, tk) for K ≥ 0, and then find J1. (b) Minimize J1 with respect to t1, t2, …, tk. Stage 2. (a) Vary the order of the active subsystem to find an optimal solution under K switches. (b) Vary the number of switches K to find an optimal solution. Dynamic programming is a powerful tool for solving general dynamic optimization problems. The main advantage is that it can easily deal with the constraints and nonlinearity of such problems while obtaining a globally optimal solution. The dynamic programming technique is based on the Bellman’s Principle of Optimality, which Asian Journal of Control, Vol. 8, No. 3, September 2006 states that the optimal policy can be obtained if we first solve a one stage problem involving only the last stage and then gradually extend it to the first stage. As a matter of fact, dynamic programming has been used to solve the optimal control of a switched system [16]. i By denoting Σ [k, N] as a subset of Σ[k, N] which contains all σ∈Σ[k, N], starting with subsystem i at instant k, one can i compute the cost functions V (x(k), k), i ∈ I by solving Eq. i ' (22), where i, i represent a subsystem and V (x (k), k) is the minimum value of J if the system starts at time k with state x(k) and subsystem i: i V ( x( k ), k ) = min min J (σ, u ) i σ∈∑ k , N u∈U [ ] ⎧ ψ(( N )) if k = N ⎪ ⎪ min{L( x(k ), u (k )) = ⎨ u(k ) (22) j ⎪ + min V ( x(k + 1), k + 1)} if 0 ≤ k < N . ⎪⎩ j∈{i ,i ' } Consequently, the optimal solution (σ, u) of a discretetime switched system can be constructed by solving i V (x(k), k) backwards and finally finding (x(0), 0). In a double-shaft parallel hybrid configuration, conditions 1 and 2 are satisfied, and the gear ratio of the transmission only affects the torque contribution of the IC engine; consequently, we can divide the development of the overall optimal control strategy into two stages: (1) implement a gear shifting strategy, which selects the switching sequence of gears in a discrete set Σ to optimize the operation of the engine; (2) implement a power split strategy, which defines the best power split between the ICE and EM. With the above two-stage optimization process, the optimal control policy (Te(k), g(k)) can be constructed. 4.3 Problem Simplification The big challenge in utilizing the above algorithm to find the optimal feedback control policy is overcoming the difficulty posed by the huge computation burden. It is, thus, necessary to adopt some approaches to accelerate the computation speed. In this paper, we simplify the above two steps as described below. (1) Shifting Sequence of Gear Position Determining the gear shift strategy is crucial to improving the fuel economy of hybrid electric vehicles [17]. The gear shifting sequence of an automatic transmission can be modeled as a discrete-time dynamic system: ⎧ M , m( k ) + g ( k ) ≥ M ⎪ m(k + 1) = ⎨ 1, m( k ) + g (k ) ≤ 1 ⎪m(k ) + g ( k ), otherwise, ⎩ (23) where M is the number of gear positions, and g(k) is constrained to take on values from among −1, 0, and 1, representing downshift, hold and upshift, respectively. From the speed profile of a given driving cycle, the optimal gear position can be constructed through static optimization [9], the total switching numbers of gear position can be fixed and the shifting sequence can be determined; consequently, the problem can be transformed into an optimal control problem for a switched system with a fixed switch number and fixed switching sequence. (2) The Optimal Torque Input The state and control variables are first quantized into a finite grid. For a given driving cycle, the vehicle model can be replaced by a finite set of operating points parameterized by the required torque and speed. Pre-computed look-up tables can be constructed for recording the next states and cost function as a function of the quantized states, control inputs and operating points. Once these tables are built, they can be used to solve the problem in a very efficient manner. The dynamic programming procedure produces an optimal, time-varying, state-feedback control policy (Te*(k), g*(k)) for a driving cycle. This control policy can then be used as a state feedback controller. V. CASE STUDY To verify the control policy determined by the dynamic programming algorithm, a case was studied and will be discussed in this section. The UDDS (Urban Dynamometer Driving Schedule) driving cycle is a standard test driving cycle utilized by the Environmental Protection Agency to certify the fuel economy and emission performance of vehicles which are driven in urban areas. The optimal control policy was found through DP (Dynamic Programming) in a UDDS driving cycle. In order to evaluate the final fuel economy, the optimal control law was applied to the full-order parallel HEV model. The terminal SOC constraint was selected as 0.65, and the initial SOC in the simulation was chosen as 0.65 for the purpose of calculating the fuel economy. The dynamic trajectories of the vehicle under the optimal control policy for the UDDS driving cycle are shown in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4. Difference of Speed(km/h) 278 0.04 0.03 0.02 0.01 0 -0.005 0 200 400 600 Time(s) 800 1000 1200 Fig. 3. Difference between the required and achieved speeds. L. Fang and S. Qin: Optimal Control of Parallel Hybrid Electric Vehicles Based on Theory of Switched Systems Speed(km/h) 100 omy is achieved by optimizing the gear shifting policy and torque splitting strategy. In general, torque split algorithms developed through DP are more accurate, so the approach proposed in this paper can be utilized to assess other control strategies. A 50 0 0.70 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 B REFERENCES SOC 0.68 0.66 0.64 0 200 400 600 Overall ratio 10 800 1000 1200 800 1000 1200 800 1000 1200 C 5 0 0 200 400 600 0.6 D Fuel(L) 0.4 0.2 0 279 0 200 400 600 Time(s) Fig. 4. Dynamic trajectories of the actual speed profile, battery SOC, fuel consumption and overall ratio. The largest difference between the desired vehicle speed and the actual speed is within 0.04km/h, which means that the control strategy can trace the objective speed correctly. The SOC trajectory starts at 0.65 and ends at around 0.65 with a small quantization error. The fuel consumption of the control policy is 0.4502L, and the average fuel consumption is 3.8 L/100Km. The results were compared with the default control strategy in ADVISOR 2002, that is, the electrical peaking energy management strategy. The fuel consumption of the control policy is found to be 0.4695L, and the average fuel consumption is 3.92 L/100Km, so the optimal control law is effective in improving fuel economy. VI. CONCLUSIONS The optimal torque split problem of a parallel HEV has been formulated as the optimal control problem of a switched system. A control strategy for general parallel HEVs has been developed in this paper. The proposed optimal torque split strategy for parallel HEVs, designed with the aid of dynamic programming, can improve the overall system efficiency. A two-stage dynamic programming algorithm has been used to solve the minimum fuel optimal control problem for a parallel hybrid electric vehicle. 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