Evaluation of lightweight battery management system with field test of electric bus in campus transit system

Abstract

A battery management system is a crucial part of a battery-powered electric vehicle, which functions as a monitoring system, state estimation, and protection for the vehicle. Among these functions, the state estimation, i.e., state of charge and remaining battery life estimation, is widely researched in order to find an accuracy estimation methodology. Most of the recent researches are based on the study of the battery cell level and the complex algorithm. In practice, there is a statement that the method should be simple and robust. Therefore, this research work is focused on the study of lightweight methodology for state estimation based on the battery pack. The discrete Coulomb counting method and the data-driven approach, based on the Palmgren-Miner method, are proposed for the estimation of the state of charge and remaining battery life, respectively. The proposed methods are evaluated through a battery-powered electric bus under real scenario-based circumstances in the campus transit system. In addition, the battery life-cycle cost analysis is also investigated. The tested bus has currently been in operation in the transit system for more than one year.