Power balance control based on full state feedback for a fuel-cell hybrid electric vehicle

A fuel-cell vehicle (FCV) mainly depends on the fuel-cell system (FCS) to provide the power to drive the vehicle. A battery is also integrated as the second power source, which has the advantage of high density and quick dynamic response. Since two power sources co-exist in the vehicle, the control balance of how to distribute the transient power requirement between the FCS and the battery has a great impact on the performance of the FCV. In this paper, the dynamic model of FCS, the battery, the electric motor (EM), and its control unit are first established. Then the parameters in these models are determined by using the least squares method to achieve an analytical description of the power-train system. According to the FCV model, the power balance control based on the best state feedback is realized. This optimized control is verified over three different typical driving cycles through simulation and a bench experiment. The results show that the balance control has a practical application for FCV in improving the fuel economy and the dynamic performance.