Accelerated design and optimization of battery management systems using HIL simulation and Rapid Control Prototyping

This paper describes the use of Hardware-in-Loop (HIL) simulation and Rapid Control Prototyping (RCP) tools for the accelerated design and optimization of battery management systems (BMS) typically found in hybrid/electric vehicles. The BMS is an electronic system that manages a rechargeable battery pack. Its functions include monitoring the cell/pack voltage, current, temperature, state-of-charge, depth-of-discharge, and state-of-health. Besides reporting this data to a supervisory (powertrain) controller, the BMS protects the battery by preventing it from operating outside its safe operating range and balancing the individual cells. Programming, testing and validation of the BMS with real batteries is a time-consuming, expensive and potentially dangerous operation since physical batteries needs to be discharged and re-charged for every development iteration. With the help of virtual batteries models as part of a HIL simulation, the BMS algorithm can be developed, calibrated and validated in a very secure and time-efficient manner resulting in a significant product development time reduction.