Smart Cells for Embedded Battery Management

This paper introduces a novel approach to battery management. In contrast to state-of-the-art solutions where a central Battery Management System (BMS) exists, we propose an Embedded Battery Management (EBM) that entirely decentralizes the monitoring and control of the battery pack. For this purpose, each cell of the pack is equipped with a Cell Management Unit (CMU) that monitors and controls local parameters of the respective cell, using its computational and communication resources. This combination of a battery cell and CMU forms the smart cell. Consequently, system-level functions are performed in a distributed fashion by the network of smart cells, applying concepts of self-organization to enable plug-and-play integration. This decentralized distributed architecture might offer significant advantages over centralized BMSs, resulting in higher modularity, easier integration and shorter time to market for battery packs. A development platform has been set up to design and analyze circuits, protocols and algorithms for EBM enabled by smart cells.