Mission aware energy efficiency in stationary combat vehicles

This paper presents an on-line technique for achieving fuel-energy efficiency while meeting the electrical demands of a stationary combat vehicle. A vehicle´s electrical load depends on the requirements of a combat mission. To achieve higher efficiency, a vehicle can use any existing advanced energy management systems and techniques (hardware/software), but they require complex, costly, and time-consuming implementations. The authors propose an approach in this paper to achieve energy efficiency in a stationary combat vehicle by operating the engine at a fuel-efficient speed to meet the vehicle load demand. The method accomplishes the aim by combining engine and alternator efficiency data, mission awareness, and a fuzzy logic soft computing methodology. The simulation uses a computerized vehicle software model and a test bench to validate the approach. In comparison to vehicles with high-idle RPM technology, the simulation results of the new approach show a 15.7% efficiency improvement for combat mission scenarios. The future implementation of this approach on a real vehicle will test the performance of the technique using a fuzzy electronic chip.