Comparative Study of Online Open Circuit Voltage Estimation Techniques for State of Charge Estimation of Lithium-Ion Batteries

Online estimation techniques are extensively used to determine the parameters of various uncertain dynamic systems. In this paper, online estimation of the open-circuit voltage (OCV) of lithium-ion batteries is proposed by two different adaptive filtering methods (i.e., recursive least square, RLS, and least mean square, LMS), along with an adaptive observer. The proposed techniques use the battery’s terminal voltage and current to estimate the OCV, which is correlated to the state of charge (SOC). Experimental results highlight the effectiveness of the proposed methods in online estimation at different charge/discharge conditions and temperatures. The comparative study illustrates the advantages and limitations of each online estimation method

Design and implementation of machine learning techniques for modeling and managing battery energy storage systems

The fast technological evolution and industrialization that have interested the humankind since the fifties has caused a progressive and exponential increase of CO2 emissions and Earth temperature. Therefore, the research community and the political authorities have recognized the need of a deep technological revolution in both the transportation and the energy distribution systems to hinder climate changes. Thus, pure and hybrid electric powertrains, smart grids, and microgrids are key technologies for achieving the expected goals. Nevertheless, the development of the above mentioned technologies require very effective and performing Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESSs), and even more effective Battery Management Systems (BMSs). Considering the above background, this Ph.D. thesis has focused on the development of an innovative and advanced BMS that involves the use of machine learning techniques for improving the BESS effectiveness and efficiency. Great attention has been paid to the State of Charge (SoC) estimation problem, aiming at investigating solutions for achieving more accurate and reliable estimations. To this aim, the main contribution has concerned the development of accurate and flexible models of electrochemical cells. Three main modeling requirements have been pursued for ensuring accurate SoC estimations: insight on the cell physics, nonlinear approximation capability, and flexible system identification procedures. Thus, the research activity has aimed at fulfilling these requirements by developing and investigating three different modeling approaches, namely black, white, and gray box techniques. Extreme Learning Machines, Radial Basis Function Neural Networks, and Wavelet Neural Networks were considered among the black box models, but none of them were able to achieve satisfactory SoC estimation performances. The white box Equivalent Circuit Models (ECMs) have achieved better results, proving the benefit that the insight on the cell physics provides to the SoC estimation task. Nevertheless, it has appeared clear that the linearity of ECMs has reduced their effectiveness in the SoC task. Thus, the gray box Neural Networks Ensemble (NNE) and the white box Equivalent Neural Networks Circuit (ENNC) models have been developed aiming at exploiting the neural networks theory in order to achieve accurate models, ensuring at the same time very flexible system identification procedures together with nonlinear approximation capabilities. The performances of NNE and ENNC have been compelling. In particular, the white box ENNC has reached the most effective performances, achieving accurate SoC estimations, together with a simple architecture and a flexible system identification procedure. The outcome of this thesis makes it possible the development of an interesting scenario in which a suitable cloud framework provides remote assistance to several BMSs in order to adapt the managing algorithms to the aging of BESSs, even considering different and distinct applications

Comparison between two nonlinear Kalman Filters for reliable SoC estimation on a prototypal BMS

Energy Storage Systems (ESS)s have become widely pervasive in several sectors, both in the civil and in the industrial fields. Among the several applications, two of the most critical concern energy storing in the future Smart Grids and microgrids and power sourcing for Electric and Hybrid Vehicles. In this context, the management of the ESS represents a crucial task in order to guarantee efficient, effective and robust energy storing. The Battery Management System (BMS) is the device designated for performing this management. It has to avoid damages to the cell, to estimate the State of Charge (SoC), the State of Health (SoH) and to perform the cell equalization. In this paper, the SoC estimation by means of state observers has been investigated. In particular, the performances obtained by the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) and by the Square Root Unscented Kalman Filter (SR-UKF) have been compared on a prototypal BMS. Results show that the SR-UKF succeeds in coping with the nonlinearities of the battery, obtaining better and more robust estimations than the classic EKF