Influence and Optimization of Packet Loss on the Internet-Based Geographically Distributed Test Platform for Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle Powertrain Systems

In view of recent developments in fuel cell electric vehicle powertrain systems, Internet-based geographically distributed test platforms for fuel cell electric vehicle powertrain systems become a development and validation trend. Due to the involvement of remote connection and the Internet, simulation with connected models can suffer great uncertainty because of packet loss. Such a test platform, including packet loss characteristics, was built using MATLAB/Simulink for use in this paper. The simulation analysis results show that packet loss affects the stability of the whole test system. The impact on vehicle speed is mainly concentrated in the later stage of simulation. Aiming at reducing the effect of packet loss caused by Internet, a robust model predictive compensator was designed. Under this compensator, the stability of the system is greatly improved compared to the system without a compensator

Transparency of a Geographically Distributed Test Platform for Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle Powertrain Systems Based on X-in-the-Loop Approach

X-in-the-loop is a new vehicle development and validation method for increasingly complex vehicle systems, which integrates the driver and the environment. In view of recent developments in fuel cell electric vehicle powertrain systems, Tongji University and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology have jointly developed a set of distributed test platforms based on the X-in-the-loop approach. This platform contains models and test equipment for a fuel cell electric vehicle powertrain system. Due to the involvement of remote connection and the Internet, test with connected test benches will suffer great uncertainty cause of signal transfer delay. To figure out this uncertainty, the concept of transparency is introduced. Four parameters were selected as transparency parameters in this distributed test platform. These include vehicle speed, fuel cell output power, battery output power, and electric motor torque under several different configuration settings. With the help of transparency theory and statistical methodology, especially Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), the transparency of these four parameters was established, vehicle speed, electric motor torque, battery power, and fuel cell power are affected by network state, the degree of influence is enhanced in turn. Using new defined parametric and non-parametric methods, this paper identifies the statistical significance and the transparency limitations caused by Internet under these several configurations. These methods will generate inputs for developer setting the distributed test configuration. These results will contribute to optimize the process of geographically distributed validation and joint development