Real Time implementation of an Optimal Power Management Strategy for a Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle

A Real Time implementation of an Optimal Control Strategy for a Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle is presented. The optimization aimed at minimizing the overall CO2 emission of the vehicle by considering a Well-To-Wheel approach: the control objective has been achieved by applying the Pontryagin’s Minimum Principle to a mathematical model of an experimental Plug-In Series Hybrid Electric Vehicle, the ITAN500. Realistic urban driving cycles have been used in the present investigation, in order to obtain more accurate and truthful results in terms of CO2 emissions and fuel consumption, rather than those achievable by using standard speed profiles. Some important issues in terms of how to determine a suitable realtime behavior using a Hardware In the Loop (HIL) framework have been deeply discussed. Results in terms of Partial and Full Knowledge of the driving cycle have been presented.