Distributed and Modular Automotive Power Network Management Based on Auction Theory

In recent years, the amount of electric and electronic components in the automotive power network (APN) has increased significantly. With regard to autonomous driving, telecommunication, infotainment, and other comfort functionalities, a further growing complexity in the APN is emerging. Additionally, the still requested customization of cars leads to more variants, models, and decoupled development cycles in terms of software and hardware. To ensure a flexible APN design, this paper demonstrates a modular approach for the power management combining auction theory and service-oriented architecture (SOA) for APNs with multiple voltage levels. The presented algorithm facilitates distributed decision-making by the growing number of components in the network regarding their power consumption. Hence, the individual components adapt their behavior in terms of component states and the APN condition. Furthermore, the SOA paradigm ensures the scalability and fault tolerance of the proposed algorithm.