Automotive


Alternative drive concepts

The increasing demand for vehicles with reduced emissions has led to new concepts in the automotive sector. One possible starting point is purely electrically powered vehicles. These are characterised by a multitude of advantages, such as the saving of mechanical parts (transmission, clutch, differential...), the brake energy recovery, the local emission-free, the improvement potential for driving safety systems, the low noise pollution and the efficient use of energy. However, purely electric driving also has disadvantages with today's technology. In particular, the storage capacity and performance of the batteries limits the range of the vehicles. For this reason, ways must be found to use the energy available in the vehicle as efficiently as possible.


Projektablauf

The challenges in the field of alternative drive concepts are to be mastered within the framework of a cooperation between the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Daimler AG. The goal of the subproject "Modelling and optimal control of electric drive trains" is the modelling of the drive train and, based on this, the design of energy-optimal control strategies in an electric vehicle (Figure 1). In principle, the criteria of driving stability and comfort, energy efficiency, control behaviour, safety of electrical systems, interference and integration of the safety functions of a vehicle (ABS, ESP, ASR, ...) must be taken into account during development. Once a first draft has been completed and simulations for it lead to promising results, a rapid prototyping system is to be used in a test vehicle to test the control strategy in a hardware-in-the-loop environment and uncover potential for improvement. At the end of the project, an operational concept for energy-optimal control should be available.