Smart vehicle powernet enabling complete vehicle energy management

There is a strong need for energy management in vehicles, because of the significant amount of energy they consume during their lifespan. Owing to the introduction of advanced powertrain configurations like hybrid electric vehicles, the complexity of the supervisory controllers is increasing rapidly. Besides propulsion power, it is also desirable to take the power request from auxiliaries into account, such that “blind” and inefficient operations at (sub) system level are avoided. This vision paper proposes a novel control concept for complete vehicle energy management, maximizing the energy efficiency of the vehicle powernet whereas complexity of the control architecture remains limited. This is achieved by constructing a smart vehicle powernet with programmable auxiliaries which relies on decentralized control. Energy is “traded” between suppliers and consumers according to a price-based control philosophy, taking into account all energy flows in the vehicle. Maximum hardware flexibility is guaranteed because systems take their decisions autonomously. This enables “plug & play” auxiliaries, that can be installed without modifications for the rest of the vehicle or the energy management system. The time required for testing and calibration significantly reduces, whereas global energy efficiency can still be achieved.