Online use of the fuzzy transform in the estimation of electric vehicle range

Abstract

The phenomenon of range anxiety is a disincentive to the uptake of electric vehicles by a large proportion of drivers despite the range afforded by an electric vehicle being more than is required by the majority of drivers for their daily journeys. Although efforts continue to alleviate the situation through increasing the autonomous range of vehicles that operate from a battery, in some cases, it might be that range anxiety may also be mitigated through better driver information. However, the systems comprising any vehicle and an electric vehicle in particular are highly complex and nonlinear and do not lend themselves to analytical modelling to allow range prediction; instead, model-free methods must be employed. One relatively recent advance in model-free methods is the 'Fuzzy Transform', which has now been adapted to online use for the prediction of remaining range of an electric vehicle. © The Institute of Measurement and Control 2013.