An Optimal Approach to Energy Management of a Hybrid Fuel-Cell Competition Vehicle

In this paper, we design an energy management control system to improve powertrain efficiency and optimize the amount of fuel used in a route-based scenario by a hybrid fuel cell vehicle. To reach this goal a complete tank-to-wheel model is developed; under the assumption of a known scenario the speed profile that minimizes the required energy to complete the test is computed and a controller able to handle the power request is designed. In particular, a Model Predictive Control architecture is used to split the power request between the primary and the secondary power source (fuel cell and supercapacitor). To develop and test the proposed energy management control system, the hydrogen prototype IDRAkronos is used. The vehicle is designed and built by the Team H 2 politO of the Politecnico di Torino to join the Shell Eco-Marathon competition.