Torque-based Optimal Acceleration Control for Electric Vehicle

The existing research of the acceleration control mainly focuses on an optimization of the velocity trajectory with respect to a criterion formulation that weights acceleration time and fuel consumption. The minimum-fuel acceleration problem in conventional vehicle has been solved by Pontryagin’s maximum principle and dynamic programming algorithm, respectively. The acceleration control with minimum energy consumption for battery electric vehicle(EV) has not been reported. In this paper, the permanent magnet synchronous motor(PMSM) is controlled by the field oriented control(FOC) method and the electric drive system for the EV(including the PMSM, the inverter and the battery) is modeled to favor over a detailed consumption map. The analytical algorithm is proposed to analyze the optimal acceleration control and the optimal torque versus speed curve in the acceleration process is obtained. Considering the acceleration time, a penalty function is introduced to realize a fast vehicle speed tracking. The optimal acceleration control is also addressed with dynamic programming(DP). This method can solve the optimal acceleration problem with precise time constraint, but it consumes a large amount of computation time. The EV used in simulation and experiment is a four-wheel hub motor drive electric vehicle. The simulation and experimental results show that the required battery energy has little difference between the acceleration control solved by analytical algorithm and that solved by DP, and is greatly reduced comparing with the constant pedal opening acceleration. The proposed analytical and DP algorithms can minimize the energy consumption in EV’s acceleration process and the analytical algorithm is easy to be implemented in real-time control.