Power loss minimization in electric cars by wheel force allocation

The need for lowering the emission levels has never been greater than now. In the vehicle industry, electrification seems to be an irreversible way ahead but user-related challenges such as limited range delay electricity as the primary energy source for personal transportation. Other control-related challenges are also introduced as electric cars are over-actuated, i.e. several actuators can be used for the same purpose. Over-actuation introduces the possibility to choose more freely which actuator to use when. Can this freedom of choice be used to improve energy efficiency of electric cars by e.g. minimizing power losses? In this thesis, two wheel force distribution algorithms have been developed with a method called control allocation. The algorithms minimize power losses in the electric drivetrain, transmission and tires. They were tested in a simulated city cycle in a Volvo V60 configuration with four electric motors, each connected to a wheel through a single speed transmission and coupling respectively. It was found that by using developed algorithms, up to 3.9% energy could be saved. In a next step, the transmission ratio on the front motors and rear motors were optimized in combination with one of the algorithms. By using a larger transmission ratio in the front than in the rear, the energy consumption reduced even further. With these development steps, up to 7.9% energy could be saved compared to the original vehicle

Energy reduction by power loss minimisation through wheel torque allocation in electric vehicles: a simulation-based approach

As vehicles become increasingly electrified, electrical machines for propulsion can be divided into many sources making the vehicle highly over-actuated. For over-actuated vehicles, the allocation of a propulsive force is an underdetermined process with respect to both the number of wheels and electrical machines. Hence, the allocation can be made to favour particular attributes such as energy consumption. In this study, a vehicle equipped with four identical electric motors with a fixed transmission ratio connected through a half-shaft and a coupling to one wheel respectively is driven a 2-h-long city cycle in the vicinity of G\uf6teborg. Two different control allocation methods are presented to distribute torque momentaneously based on driver request while minimising power losses in electric motor and inverter as well as tyres. One method is a quadratic programming optimisation and the other is an offline exhaustive search method resulting in a look-up table based on requested torque and actual speed. The two methods are compared to other torque distribution strategies based on fixed distribution ratio and equal tyre-to-road friction utilisation. It was found that using the developed optimisation algorithms, a reduction of up to 3.9% in energy consumption can be obtained

Joint Optimization of Transmission and a Control Allocator to Minimize Power Losses in Electric Vehicles

The objective of this paper is to explore the potential of combining hardware and software design parameters in the optimization for reduced energy consumption in an electric vehicle. The vehicle used has four electric motors connected to one wheel each through a single speed transmission and a controllable coupling. The software design parameter consists of a control allocator based on a quadratic optimization program that distributes torque and wheel angle to minimize power losses in the electric motors, inverters, transmission and tires. The control allocation algorithm is then used in combination with the hardware design parameters, consisting of a controllable coupling and different transmission ratio setups between front and rear motors, in order to evaluate the joint effect on energy consumption. It was found that the energy consumption can be reduced by 8.4 % compared to equal torque distribution on all wheels