Simulation and hardware-in-the-loop evaluation of a GM Malibu

EcoCAR 2 is an Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition for collegiate level engineering students organized by Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) with the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) and General Motors (GM) as the headline sponsors. The goal of the competition is to re-engineer a GM- donated 2013 Malibu Eco as a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) over the course of three years. Autonomie software developed by ANL and a mid-sized hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) system with rapid controller prototyping (RCP) controllers have been used for simulation of vehicle fuel economy and performance prior to the actual vehicle modification. The results of these simulations are compared to reported values for the Malibu Eco, and an analysis of the expected PHEV fuel economy is reported. Current ongoing work includes updating the HIL system plant model to represent the PHEV architecture and a vehicle control strategy using the RCP controllers for vehicle integration.