Cover Story E lEcTric VEHiclEs

Driverless Chassis Dynamometer testing of eleCtriC vehiCles

Key test and development parameters for electric vehicle (EV) and hybrid vehicle (HEV) applications require real life driving conditions to be simulated for a few hours. A conventional chassis dynamometer can be used to simulate all the driving conditions for a specified driving pattern. However, it is impossible for a human driver to apply the specified driving pattern for a few hours accurately. To overcome this difficulty, Tata Motors team developed a driverless chassis dynamometer test set-up which can emulate specified driving patterns to an EV/HEV powertrain for the desired amount of time.

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AuTHors

explanationS

viSHwaS vaidya

is Assistant General Manager, Electronics, at Tata Motors in Pune, Maharashtra (india).

HareSH BHere

is Development Manager, Advance Engineering at Tata Motors in Pune, Maharashtra (india).

With global warming and fuel crisis, the interest in hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles is at its lifetime peak. This leads to an explosion in EV development activi ties by OEMs who otherwise have been focusing on conventional powertrain vehi cles. Key test and development parameters for EV/HEV application comprise the range of distance a vehicle can travel in single charge, the torque/speed perform ance of the powertrain, the accuracy of the state of charge estimation etc. Although specialised EV development and test equipment are available, they are costly and need special engineering skills to be mastered for meaningfully exploiting the potential. There are few patents awarded [3, 4] for such systems which are again costly and more complex. Hence every attempt should be made to adopt existing test equipment for development and test activities for EV subsystems as well as vehicle testing. [1] briefly explains this concept applied to the chassis dynamo meter for EV test and development activi ties. This article further explains the con cept with a focus on control engineering aspects and explores manifold applications of this simple yet powerful concept for EV/HEV testing. First, the specific EV test ing needs are explained while the follow ing chapter dwells on strengths and limita tions of chassis dynamometer testing as a test philosophy. The next section elabo rates on the control engineering concepts underlying the implementation of a driv erless philosophy. After this the impor tance of openloop modeling of the drive system for implementing the control algo

rithm is highlighted. Additionally, various EV specific tests are described which can gainfully use this setup without requiring huge investments in costly proprietary test equipment which is alternatively available. The last section provides concluding remarks, stressing a wider application of the concept for other types of vehicles.
SpeCial teSting needS for ev/Hev development

An EV fundamentally differs from a con ventional vehicle because of the electrical powertrain it uses, 1. This changes the very DNA of the system architecture. Lim ited onboard energy storage as well as fast servograde motion control capabilities are the two key distinguishing elements which set apart an EV powertrain from a conventional one. Limited onboard storage makes the range between two consecutive charges a crucial performance parameter. Servograde motion control brings into focus acceleration capabilities, as well as drivability due to much more agile motion response compared to a conventionally driven vehicle. Performance of liquid cool ing of the motor as well as the motor con trol power electronics particularly when scaling a continuous grade also becomes crucial. The DCDC converter is another subsystem which is specific only to an EV architecture.
CHaSSiS dynamometer teSting: limitationS and StrengtHS

Traditionally, a chassis dynamometer has been used as a powerful performance evaluation tool for a conventional vehicle.

1 Electric powertrain
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Cover Story E lEcTric VEHiclEs

2 Electric vehicle control loop

3 control system block diagram for electric vehicle testing

It is extensively used for assessing the engine emission performance of a vehicle. The driver needs to meticulously follow the driving profile displayed on a PC screen in the form of speed versus time at a stipulated gear position. Although this approach is fine for a conventionally driven vehicle which needs to be operated for a few minutes, an EV test might go for hours for assessing the battery perform ance [2]. It would be next to impossible for any human driver to meticulously fol low a driving cycle pattern for hours. This limitation can be addressed by using a computerised driver simulator as described in [1] and briefly explained in the subsequent sections of this article. On the other hand, the strengths of a chassis dynamometer like electronic auto matic load control which are used exten sively for racing car performance evalua tions as well as vehicle road performance simulations under diverse driving condi tions can be gainfully exploited to simulate various electric current load patterns for the EV batteries as well as for assessing torque performance of the electrical drivetrain components like motor and controller.

Control engineering perSpeCtive

zero. The electric drivetrain needs to be applied with negative torque during decel eration portion of the driving profile. This can be easily accomplished by regenerative braking of the drivetrain in which the trac tion motor acts as a generator and pumps the electric power to charge the battery, thereby decelerating the vehicle. One needs to ensure that the battery charging current limits as specified by the battery manu facturer are not violated. However, most batteries are capable of withstanding short term electric transients, in the form of both charging as well as discharging currents. In cases where a test profile demands additional braking torque beyond the charging constraints of the battery, the same may be emulated by a friction brak ing mechanism whose friction torque could be controlled by electric means to preserve the driverless nature of the test. However, in the reallife experiments con ducted by the authors, such constraints were not faced and onefoot EV opera tion as described in [1] could be easily implemented based on regenerative brak ing. To the best of our knowledge most of the driving cycles used for vehicle testing do not present aggressive deceleration making total regenerative braking as a viable option for this application.
open-loop modeling for feed-forward map and Control Strategy tuning

Implementation of the driverless feature for the chassis dynamometer testing is based on emulation of the driver behavior using a computer. Generally, an electric drive system provided to control the trac tion motor for an EV implements what is known as torqueloop. 2 illustrates the concept. A torque setpoint is provided via an electric voltage supplied by the throttle potentiometer. If the throttle position is maintained constantly by the driver, the vehicle experiences a continuous accelera tion. However, the driver generally wishes to control speed of the vehicle depending on driving conditions as well as urgency to reach the destination. Hence the drivers brain operates what is known as a speed loop in control engineering parlance, . The drivers eyes receive feedback regard ing vehicle speed from the speedometer on the instrument cluster. The driver mentally compares the difference between the speed he wishes to reach and the actual speed. Based on the difference he applies appro priate torque through the throttle so as to reduce the error between the two to almost

The most critical part of designing this type of test setup is to arrive at an accurate control strategy to close the speedloop. Here again a study of drivers behavior proves useful. An experienced driver oper ates the throttle to a value close enough to the final torque setpoint through his or her experience and waits for a while to gauge the vehicle response to the same. The accuracy of this initial setpoint decides how close the actual vehicle speed moves to the drivers wish. Based on the error, the driver now finetunes the throttle position so as to attain the desired speed setpoint in his or her mind. In control engineering parlance this approach is known as feed forward strategy. We can conduct open loop experiments on the chassis dynamo meter to determine the closest initial torque setpoints for attaining various values of final vehicle speeds and prepare a lookup table known as feedforward

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4 Proposed control system block diagram for battery testing

map. 3 shows the complete control sys tem block diagram.

ev SpeCifiC teStS on tHe driverleSS CHaSSiS dynamometer

The driverless chassis dynamometer can be used for several battery related tests. Apart from assessing the range perform ance, a predefined load current profile could be emulated using this setup. A battery current versus time profile needs to be implemented. Hence the battery cur rent value becomes the setpoint in place of vehicle speed now. Thus, the outer loop is now the battery current loop. 4 shows the control engineering sys tem diagram. Such a test generates valua ble information needed to model the battery. Furthermore, life cycle tests can be con ducted on the driverless chassis dynamom eter. EV batteries have a limited service life depending on the number of charge/dis charge cycles they undergo during their life time. In fact, the battery life can be the sin gle most factor behind the commercial suc cess of a vehicle, since a short battery life usually means escalated life cycle costs for the customers. Hence this setup can be employed to perform charge/discharge cycling of batteries or modules to obtain charge and discharge capacity, energy, DC internal resistance etc. Another battery related test is the par tial discharge test. In real life applications, EVs would be put on charge even before their battery is partially discharged and the dynamometer will be used to study the effect of partial discharge on battery capacity.
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Additionally, dynamic power charge/ discharge using the dynamic stress test (DST) procedures set by the US Advanced Battery Consortium (USABC) can be con ducted. The charging can be effected by means of a negative torque setpoint. However, it may require access to the internal subsystem parameters of the electric drive which need to be operated into fourth quadrant for charging the bat tery as per stipulated pattern. Next to battery related tests, the driver less chassis dynamometer is also used for tests on vehicle level, for example the sustained hill climb test. Regarding start ing torque and hence initial gradability, EVs are better than conventional vehicles. However, when it comes to scale sus tained slopes like long flyovers or steep hills, the power semiconductors used in the drive electronics may heat and trip the drive stranding the vehicle in the traffic. This test can be safely carried out on the dynamometer by using the Electronic Automatic Load Control feature provided by most dynamometers. A constant torque load corresponding to the stipulated grade could be exerted by the dynamometer. The speed loop can attain a lower speed set point which is applicable as per the vehicle specifications during hill climb. Another kind of test on vehicle level are the adverse temperature tests. Subzero temperatures may adversely affect battery capacity while high temperatures encoun tered in hot climates may restrict torque capacity of the electric drivetrain and hence drivability. No driver will enjoy physically entering the temperature cham ber to drive the vehicle. Hence driverless testing definitely is a blessing in such situation.

ConCluding remarkS and furtHer roadmap

Although this article describes a powerful technique for EV testing, the concept could also be extended to conventionally driven vehicles with automatic transmis sions or automated manual transmissions, provided the friction braking is also auto mated using electropneumatic or electro hydraulic control systems. This mechanism could also be employed for refining control algorithms by employ ing some autolearning techniques, for example artificial neural networks etc., in the computer software controlling the test setup. The article undoubtedly presents a powerful tool with immense potential lim ited only by the users imagination.
referenCeS

[1] Vaidya Vishawas, Bhere Haresh: Driverless chassis Dynamometer Testing For EV Powertrains, FisiTA 2010 [2] EcE regulation 101 [3] Koji Yamamoto: Hybrid Electric Vehicle Testing Method And systems, us patent No: us 6,457,351, 1999 [4] A.scott Keller: robotic system For Testing of Electric Vehicle us Patent No: us 5,430,645,1993

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