Development and use of a series hybrid vehicle control strategy for the ADVISOR simulation tool

Hybrid vehicles can request the necessary power for driving different speed cycles from more than one power source. The combinations of 2 sources offers new possibilities to minimize the fuel consumption of the combustion engine. This paper discusses a systematic optimization strategy for general series hybrid vehicles in combination with a battery. This approach differs fundamentally from other controllers, which are tuned empirically or using little system information. The proposed control strategy is based on the minimization of a objective function, including the combined losses of the combustion engine and the battery. The minimization procedure yields a static controller map, which guarantees both minimal fuel consumption and a balanced state of charge (SOC) of the battery. Simulations and comparisons to other control strategies, with the hybrid vehicle simulation tool ADVISOR conclude the paper.