9

Control of Electric Vehicle

Qi Huang, Jian Li and Yong Chen
University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
P.R.China

1. Introduction
The major components of an electric vehicle system are the motor, controller, power supply,
charger and drive train (wry, 2003). Fig. 1 demonstrates a system model for an electric
vehicle. Controller is the heart of an electric vehicle, and it is the key for the realization of a
high-performance electric vehicle with an optimal balance of maximum speed, acceleration
performance, and traveling range per charge.

Auxiliary
Batteries
Power Supply

Electronic Power Transmission

Drivers Electric Motor
Controller Converter Unit

Fig. 1. Major components in an electric vehicle

Control of Electric Vehicle (EV) is not a simple task in that operation of an EV is essentially
time-variant (e.g., the operation parameters of EV and the road condition are always
varying). Therefore, the controller should be designed to make the system robust and
adaptive, improving the system on both dynamic and steady state performances. Another
factor making the control of EV unique is that EV’s are really "energy-management"
machines (Cheng et al., 2006). Currently, the major limiting factor for wide-spread use of
EV’s is the short running distance per battery charge. Hence, beside controling the
performance of vehicle (e.g., smooth driving for comfortable riding), significant efforts have
to be paid to the energy management of the batteries on the vehicle.
However, from the viewpoint of electric and control engineering, EV’s are advantagous over
traditional vehicles with internal combustion engine. The remarkable merit of EV’s is the
electric motor’s excellent performance in motion control, which can be summerized as
(Sakai & Hori, 2000): (1) torque generation is very quick and accurate, hence electric motors
can be controlled much more quickly and precisely; (2) output torque is easily
comprehensible; (3) motor can be small enough to be attached to each wheel; (4) and the
controller can be easily designed and implemented with comparatively low cost.
Source: Urban Transport and Hybrid Vehicles, Book edited by: Seref Soylu,
ISBN 978-953-307-100-8, pp. 192, September 2010, Sciyo, Croatia, downloaded from SCIYO.COM

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164 Urban Transport and Hybrid Vehicles

Hence, in recent years, there is quite a lot of researches in the exploring advanced controll
strategies in electric vehicles. As the development of the high computing capability
microprocessor, such as DSP (Digital Signal Processor), it is possible to perform complex
control on the electric vehicle to achieve optimal performance (Liu et al., 2004). These
capabilities can be utilized to enhance the performance and safety of individual vehicles as
well as to operate vehicles in formations for specific purposes (Lin & Kanellakopoulos,
1995). Due to the complex operation condition of electric vehicle, intelligent or fuzzy control
is generally used to increase efficiency and deal with complex operation modes (Poorani et
al., 2003; Khatun et al., 2003). However, it is essential to establish a model-based control for
the EV system, and systematically study the characteristics to achieve optimal and robust
control. This chapter will mainly focuses on model-based control design for EV’s and the
implementation of the platform for realization of variant control strategies.

2. Modeling of electric vehicle

Generally, the modelling of an EV involves the balance among the forces acting on a
running vehicle, as shown in Fig. 2. The forces are categorized into road load and tractive
force. The road load consists of the gravitational force, hill-climbing force, rolling resistance
of the tires and the aerodynamic drag force. Consider all these factors, a vehicle dynamic
model that governs the kinetics of the wheels and vehicle can be written as (wry, 2003):

F = μrr mg + ρ AC d v 2 + mg sin φ + m
1 dv
(1)
2 dt

velocity of the vehicle; μrr is the rolling resistance coefficient; ρ is the air density; A is the
Where, m is the mass of the electric vehicle; g is the gravity acceleration; v is the driving

frontal area of the vehicle; Cd is the drag coefficient; and φ is the hill climbing angle.
The rolling resistance is produced by the flattening of the tire at the contact surface of the
roadway. The main factors affecting the rolling resistance coefficient μrr are the type of tyre
and the tyre pressure. It is generally obtained by measurement in field test. The typical
range is 0.005-0.015, depending on the type of tyre. The rolling resistance can be minimized
by keeping the tires as much inflated as possible.

Fad
V

COI:Center of
Fhc Inertia
ω =V / R

ψ
Frr
ψ
Road base
mg
Fig. 2. External forces applied on a running vehicle

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Control of Electric Vehicle 165

motor

tire

r
G:gear ratio

Frr

Fig. 3. A simplified model for motor driving tyre

In equation (1), the first term corresponds to the rolling resistance force; the second term
corresponds to the aerodynamic drag force; the third term corresponds to the hill climbing
force; and the forth term corresponds to the acceleration force.
This resultant force F, will produce a counteractive torque to the driving motor, i.e., the
tractive force. For vibration study, the connection between the driving motor and the tyre
should be modeled in detail. Interested readers are refered to (Profumo et al., 1996). In this
chapter, a simplified model, as shown in Fig. 3, will be used. With this simplified model, the
relationship between the tractive force and the torque produced by the motor can be
obtained as:

TL = F ⋅
r
(2)
G
Where r is the tyre radius of the electric vehicle, G is the gearing ratio, and TL is the torque
produced by the driving motor.

3. Electric motor and their models

Presently, brushed DC motor, brushless DC motor, AC induction motor, permanent magnet
synchronous motor (PMSM) and switched reluctance motor (SRM) are the main types of
motors used for electric vehicle driving (Chan, 1999). The selection of motor for a specific
electric vehicle is dependent on many factors, such as the intention of the EV, ease of
control, etc.
In control of electric vehicle, the control objective is the torque of the driving machine. The
throttle position and the break is the input to the control system. The control system is
required to be fast reponsive and low-ripple. EV requires that the driving electric machine
has a wide range of speed regulation. In order to guarantee the speed-up time, the electric
machine is required to have large torque output under low speed and high over-load
capability. And in order to operate at high speed, the driving motor is required to have
certain power output at high-speed operation. In this chapter, the former four types of
motors that can be found in many applications will be discussed in detail.

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166 Urban Transport and Hybrid Vehicles

coil

Es Es Es
coil coil

Fig. 4. Three types of winding configuration in DC motor

3.1 Brushed DC motor

Due to the simplicity of DC motor controlling and the fact that the power supply from the
battery is DC power in nature, DC motor is popularly selected for the traction of electric
vehicles. There are three classical types of brushed DC motor with field windings, series,
shunt and ‘separately excited’ windings, as shown in Fig. 4. The shunt wound motor is
particularly difficult to control, as reducing the supply voltage also results in a weakened
magnetic field, thus reducing the back EMF, and tending to increase the speed. A reduction
in supply voltage may, in some circumstances, have very little effect on the speed. The
separately excited motor allows one to have independent control of both the magnetic flux
and the supply voltage, which allows the required torque at any required angular speed to
be set with great flexibility. A series wound DC motor is easy to use and with added benefit
of providing comparatively larger startup torque. A (series) DC motor can generally be
modeled as (Mehta & Chiasson, 1998):

⎧
(L + L field ) = V − ( Ra + R f )i − Laf i ⋅ ω
⎪⎪ a
di

⎨
⎪ J dω = L i 2 − Bω − T
dt (3)

⎪⎩ dt af L

Where: i is the armature current (also field current); ω is the motor angular speed; La, Ra,
Lfield, Rf are the armature inductance, armature resistance, field winding inductance and field
winding resistance respectively; V is the input voltage, as the control input; Laf is the mutual
inductance between the armature winding and the field winding, generally non-linear due
to saturation; J is the inertia of the motor, including the gearing system and the tyres; B is the
viscous coefficient; and TL is representing the external torque, which is quantitatively the
same as the one aforementioned.

3.2 Brushless DC motor

The disadvantages of brushed DC motor are its frequent maintenance and low life-span for
high intensity uses. Therefore, brushless DC (BLDC) motor is developed. Brushless DC
motors use a rotating permanent magnet in the rotor, and stationary electrical magnets on
the motor housing. A motor controller converts DC to AC. This design is simpler than that
of brushed motors because it eliminates the complication of transferring power from outside
the motor to the spinning rotor. Brushless motors are advantageous over brushed ones due
to their long life span, little or no maintenance, high efficiency, and good performance of

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Control of Electric Vehicle 167

timing. The disadvantages are high initial cost, and more complicated motor speed
controllers (Wu et al., 2005).
A BLDC motor is composed of the motor, controller and position sensor. In the BLDC
motor, the electromagnets do not move; instead, the permanent magnets rotate and the
armature remains static. The rotor magnetic steel is radially placed, and the permanent
magnets (generally Neodymium-iron-boron: NdFeB) are installed on the surface. The
magnetic permeability of such permanent magnets is close to that of air, hence can be
regarded as part of the air gap. Hence, there is no salient pole effect, so that the magnetic
field across the air gap is uniformly distributed. The position sensor functions like the
commutator of brushed DC motor, reflecting the position of the rotor and determining the
phase of current and space distribution of magnetic force.
The BLDC motor is actually an AC motor. The wires from the windings are electrically
connected to each other either in delta configuration or wye ("Y"-shaped) configuration. In
Fig. 5, an equivalent circuit of wye-connected BLDC is shown. With this configuration, the
simplified model can be obtained as:

⎡ua ⎤ ⎡ R 0 0 ⎤ ⎡ia ⎤ ⎡L 0 0 ⎤ ⎡ia ⎤ ⎡ ea ⎤ ⎡U N ⎤

⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥
⎢ub ⎥ = ⎢ 0 R 0 ⎥ ⎢ib ⎥ + ⎢ 0 L 0 ⎥ ⋅ P ⎢ib ⎥ + ⎢ eb ⎥ + ⎢U N ⎥ (4)
⎢⎣ uc ⎥⎦ ⎢⎣ 0 0 R ⎥⎦ ⎢⎣ ic ⎥⎦ ⎢⎣ 0 0 L ⎥⎦ ⎢⎣ ic ⎥⎦ ⎢⎣ ec ⎥⎦ ⎢⎣U N ⎥⎦

Where, L = LS - M; LS: self-inductance of the windings; M: mutual inductance between two

windings; R: stator resistance per phase; ua , ub , uc : stator phase voltages; ia , ib , ic : stator phase

currents; ea , eb , ec : the back emfs in each phase; P =

d
.
dt
The generated electromagnetic torque is given by:

Te = = ( eaia + eb ib + ec ic ) / ω
ω
Pe
(5)

And the kinetics of the motor can be described as:

dω
Te − TL − f ω = J (6)
dt

Rs LS − M
ua
ia ea
N

LS − M
ib eb
ec
Rs
ub
Rs LS − M
uc
ic
Fig. 5. Equivalent circuit of BLDC

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168 Urban Transport and Hybrid Vehicles

Where, ω: the angular velocity of the motor; Te, TL: electromagnetic torque of the motor and
the load torque; Pe: electromagnetic power of the motor; J: moment of inertia; f: friction
coefficient.
Under normal operation, only two phases are in conduction. Then the voltage balance
equation, back EMF equation, torque equation, and kinetic equations that govern the
operation of a WYE connected BLDC motor can be obtained as:

⎧
⎪ud = E + i ⋅ R + L ⋅ dt
di
⎪
⎪E = K e ⋅ n
⎨
⎪Te = KT ⋅ n
(7)

⎪ dω
⎪Te = TL + f ω + J
⎩ dt
Where, ud: the voltage across the two windings under conduction; E: the back EMF of the
two windings under conduction; KT: torque coefficient, and Ke: back EMF coefficient.
It is shown that, in BLDC motors, current to torque and voltage to rpm are linear
relationships.

3.3 Permanent magnet synchronous motor

A permanent magnet synchronous motor is a motor that uses permanent magnets to
produce the air gap magnetic field rather than using electromagnets. Such motors have
significant advantages, such as high efficiency, small volume, light weight, high reliability
and maintenance-free, etc., attracting the interest of EV industry. The PMSM has a sinusoidal
back emf and requires sinusoidal stator currents to produce constant torque while the BDCM
has a trapezoidal back emf and requires rectangular stator currents to produce constant
torque. The PMSM is very similar to the wound rotor synchronous machine except that the
PMSM that is used for servo applications tends not to have any damper windings and
excitation is provided by a permanent magnet instead of a field winding. Hence the d, q
model of the PMSM can be derived from the well known model of the synchronous machine
with the equations of the damper windings and field current dynamics removed.
In a PMSM, the magnets are mounted on the surface of the motor core. They have the same
role as the field winding in a synchronous machine except their magnetic field is constant
and there is no control on it. The stator carries a three-phase winding, which produces a
near sinusoidal distribution of magneto motive force based on the value of the stator
current. In modeling of rotating machines like PMSM, it is a general practice to perform
Park transform and deal the quantities under dq framework. The dqo transform applied to a
three-phase quantities has following form:

⎡ 2π 2π ⎤
⎢ cosθ cos(θ − ) cos(θ + )⎥
⎡ xd ⎤ ⎢ 3 ⎥ ⎡x ⎤
⎢ x ⎥ = 2 ⋅ ⎢ − sin θ 2π 2π ⎥ ⎢ ⎥
3
− sin(θ − ) − sin(θ + )⎥ ⋅ ⎢ xb ⎥
3 ⎢
a

⎢ q⎥
⎢ ⎥ ⎢⎣ xc ⎥⎦
(8)
⎢⎣ x0 ⎥⎦
3 3
⎢ 1 ⎥
⎢ 2 ⎥
1 1
⎣ 2 2 ⎦

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Control of Electric Vehicle 169

Where, the x can be voltage u or current i.

Under the dq0 framework, the equivalent circuit of d-axis and q-axis circuits of a PMSM
motor is shown in Fig. 6, and the model of a PMSM can be written as (Cui et al., 2001):

⎧ud = rs id + pΨ d − ωΨ q
⎪
⎪uq = rs iq + pΨ q − ωΨ d
⎪
⎪ Ψ d = Ld i d + Ψ
⎪
⎨Ψ q = Lq ∗ iq
⎪
(9)

⎪Te = 1.5 pm ⎡⎣ Ψiq + (Ld − Lq )id iq ⎤⎦

⎪
⎪ dωr
⎪⎩ J dt = Te − Bωr − TL

Where, Ψd, Ψq: the flux linkages of d-axis and q-axis respectively; Ld, Lq: self inductance of
dq axes; id, iq: dq-axis current; ud, uq: dq-axis voltage; ωr: angular velocity of rotor; rs: stator
resistance; pm: number of poles; Ψ: flux linkage produced by the rotor permanent magnet;
Te: motor torque; TL: load torque; J: moment of inertia; B: friction coefficient; p: differential
operator.
The first two equations are the equations for stator voltage, the next two equations are about
the magnetic flux linkage, the fifth equation is about the calculation of torque, and the last
equation is about the kinetics of the motor.

ω0 Ψ q ω0 Ψ d
id + -
Rs Ls if iq + -
Rs Ls

dΨd dΨ f dΨq
im
ud Lmd Rm uq Lmq
dt dt dt

Fig. 6. d-axis and q-axis equivalent circuit model of PMSM

3.4 Induction motor

Induction machines are among the top candidates for driving electric vehicles and they are
widely used in modern electric vehicles. Some research even concludes that the induction
machine provides better overall performance compared to the other machines (Gosden et
al., 1994).
An induction motor (or asynchronous motor or squirrel-cage motor) is a type of alternating
current motor where power is supplied to the rotor by means of electromagnetic induction.
It has the advantages such as low-cost, high-efficiency, high reliability, maintenance-free,
easy for cooling and firm structure, etc. making it specially competitive in EV driving. In
induction motor, stator windings are arranged around the rotor so that when energised with
a polyphase supply they create a rotating magnetic field pattern which sweeps past the
rotor. This changing magnetic field pattern induces current in the rotor conductors, which
interact with the rotating magnetic field created by the stator and in effect causes a
rotational motion on the rotor.

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170 Urban Transport and Hybrid Vehicles

AC induction motor is a time-varying multi-variable nonlinear system, hence the modeling

•
task is not easy. For simplicity, following assumptings have to be made:

•
Magnetic circuit is linear, and saturation effect is neglected;
Symmetrical two-pole and three phases windings (120° difference) with edge effect

•
neglected;
Slotting effects are neglected, and the flux density is radial in the air gap and

•
distributed along the circumference sinusoidally;
Iron losses are neglected.
With such assumptions, the physical model of an induction motor can be given as shown in
Fig. 7. The three-phase stators are fixed on A, B and C axes, which are stationary reference
frames. The three-phase rotor windings are fixed on a, b and c axes, which are rotating
frames. Hence the equations governing the dynamics of the induction motor can be given as
(Dilmi & Yurkovich, 2005):

∂L
u = Ri + L + ωr
∂θ 0
di
i (10)
dt

∂ 2θ 0 ∂ωr 1 1 1 ∂L
= = (T − TL ) = ( iT i − TL )
∂t 2 ∂t J 2 ∂θ 0
(11)
J

Where, u = [ uA , uB , uC , ua , ub , uc ] , vector of stator and rotor voltages; i = [ i A , iB , iC , ia , ib , ic ] ,

T T

vector of stator and rotor current; ωr = dθ 0 / dt : the angular speed of rotation; J:

the total moment of inertia; TL: load torque; R = diag[ R1 R1 R1 R2 R2 R2 ] : where R1 is
the resistance of stator winding and R2 is the resistance of rotor winding;

B
i1b

ω
u1b

a
b
i2b

θ0
u 2b
u1a i
1a
o A

u2 c
c
i2c

u1c
i1C

Fig. 7. Physical Model of 3-phase AC induction Motor

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Control of Electric Vehicle 171

⎡ LA L AB ⎤ ⎡ La Lab ⎤
⎡L11 L12 ⎤ ⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥
L AB Lab
L=⎢ L11 = ⎢LAB L22 = ⎢Lab
L22 ⎥⎦
L AB ⎥ , Lab ⎥
⎣L21
, where LA La and
⎢⎣LAB L AB L A ⎥⎦ ⎢⎣Lab Lab La ⎥⎦
⎡ cosθ cos(θ − 120c ) cos(θ + 120c )⎤
⎢ ⎥
L12 = L12 T
= M ⎢ cos(θ − 120 )
c
cosθ cos(θ − 120c )⎥ ; LA, La: self-inductance of stator
⎢ cos(θ + 120 ) cos(θ − 120 ) cosθ ⎥
⎣ ⎦
c c

and rotor; LAB, Lab: mutual inductance of stators and rotors respectively; M: mutual
inductance between stator and rotor.
The first equation is the voltage equation and the second equation is the kinetic equation of
the motor.

4. Controller design of electric vehicle driven by different motors

Fig. 8 shows a universal framework for electric vehicle controller. The vehicle is driven by a
motor, which is supplied by the battery through a controlled power circuit. Other than
circuit for control of the motor, there is quite a lot of auxiliary control for auto electronics.
The control strategies are implemented in the microprocessor, such as DSP (Digital Signal
Processor).
Control of electric vehicle is essentially the control of motor. In Fig. 8, only the motor and its
associated driving power circuit will be replaced with different motors. With different
motors, it is necessary to use different control strategies. However, it is not possible to
include all type of motor and control strategies in one book. Hence, in this chapter, only one
typical controller or control strategy will be presented. It is noticed that (Chan, 1999)
generally PWM control is used for DC motor, while variable-voltage variable-frequency
(VVVF), FOC (field-oriented control) and DTC (direct torque control) are used for induction
motor. And some traditional control algorithms, such as PID, cannot satisfy the
requirements of EV control. Many modern high-performance control technologies, such as
adaptive control, fuzzy control, artificial neuro network and expert system are being used in
EV controllers.

4.1 Driven by brushed DC motor

In this subsection, the controller design for an EV driven by series wound DC motor will be
discussed. When the electric vehicle is driven by a series wound DC motor, the overall
system model is the combination of (1) and (3):

⎧
⎪⎪(La + L field ) dt = V − ( Ra + R f )i − Laf i ⋅ ω
di

⎨
⎪( J + m r ) dω = L i 2 − Bω − r ( μ mg + 1 ρ AC v 2 + mg sin φ )
2
(12)

⎪⎩ G 2 dt
af
G
rr
2
d

In this case, a model-based controller can be designed. Unlike other applications in which
the system generally operates around the equilibrium point, the operation of EV may take a
very wide range (e.g., from zero to full speed). Hence, it is essentially to design EV
controller with nonlinear control techniques. The model-based controller is very sensitive to
the uncertainties in the parameters. Many parameters in the complex vehicle dynamics

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172 Urban Transport and Hybrid Vehicles

battery
Key

Drivers & Isolation

Power Converter
KSI B-
BF
POTH
accelator F
ACC
A1
BRK
break A2
POTL

Tacho metter
Gear Shift
FRW1

main switch
Driver for
FRW2 Watchdog

Main switch
FRW3
RVR1 MC
RVR2

CANT
CANR
DSP SPEED
Automotive
electronics

Fig. 8. Model of electric vehicle controller

cannot be precisely modeled and some parameters may vary due to the varying operation
conditions. For example, the resistance in the armature winding of a motor would change as
the operation temperature varies. Hence, when designing the controller, the robustness of
the controller should be first considered. In this subsection, a nonlinear robust and optimal
controller (Huang et al., 2009) will be discussed.
For the convenience of designing nonlinear controller, first change the model in (12) into the
following format:

⎪⎧X$ = f ( X ) + g( X )u
⎨
⎪⎩ y = h( X )
(13)

Where:
⎡ Ra + R f ⎤
⎢ − x1 − ⎥ x1 ⋅ x 2
Laf
⎢ La + L field La + L field ⎥
⎡ x1 ⎤ ⎡ i ⎤
X=⎢ ⎥=⎢ ⎥; f (X ) = ⎢ ⎧ ⎫⎥⎥ ;
⎣ x2 ⎦ ⎣ω ⎦ ⎢ ⎨Laf x1 − Bx2 − ( μrr mg + ρ AC d 2 x2 + mg sin ϕ )⎬
1 r 1 r2 2
⎢ ⎩ ⎭⎥
2

⎢ J + m G2 ⎥
r2 G 2 G
⎣ ⎦
⎡ ⎤
⎢ ⎥
1
g( X ) = ⎢ La + L field ⎥ ; h( X ) = x2 .
⎢⎣ 0 ⎥⎦
In order to consider the uncertainties of the system, further change the form of (13) into:

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Control of Electric Vehicle 173

⎪⎧X$ = f ( X ) + q( X ,θ (t )) + g( X )u
⎨
⎪⎩ y = h( X )
(14)

f(X), g(X) and h(X) are the same as in previous section. q(X,θ(t)) is used to include the model
uncertainties, where θ(t) is the uncertainty vector. In the model described above, the rolling
resistance coefficient and aerodynamic dragging coefficients cannot be precisely modeled.
These coefficients are always varying along the moving of the vehicle (e.g., due to wind).

Hence, q(X,θ(t)) can be modeled as:

Also, the resistance of the windings is also varying due to the variation of temperature.

⎡ ⎤
⎢ ΔR ⎥
i
⎢ + ⎥
q( X ,θ (t )) = ⎢
L L
⎥
a field

⎢− (mgΔμrr + 2 ω ΔC ad )⎥
r /G r2 2 (15)
⎢ J+m r ⎥
⎢⎣ ⎥⎦
2
G
G2

Where, ΔR, Δμrr and ΔCad are the uncertainties in winding resistance, rolling resistance
coefficient and aerodynamic dragging coefficient respectively, with ΔRm, Δμrr _ m and ΔC ad _ m
representing their maximum uncertainties.
By using the similar coordinate transformation, we have,

⎧⎪ z$ 1 = ω$ − ω$ 0 = z2 + Lq h( X )
⎨
⎪⎩ z$ 2 = L f h( X ) + Lg L f h( X )u + Lq L f h( X )
2
(16)

Where,

Lq h( X ) = − (mgΔμrr + 2 x22 ΔC ad )
r /G r2

J +m 2
2
r G
G

r / G(mgΔμrr +
x ΔC ad )( ρ AC d 2 x2 − B)
r2 2 r2
Lq L f h( X ) = ΔR −
1 2 x12 2 2

La + L field
G G
J+m 2 ⎛ ⎞
⎜J +m 2 ⎟
r2 r 2
2

⎝ G ⎠
G
Hence, by using the recursive backstepping design method with robust control system
(Marino & Tomei, 1993; Freeman & Kokotovic, 1996), one can select a robust control
Lyapunov function (rclf) as:

V ( z1 , z2 ) = z1 + ( z2 − z# 2 )2
1 2 1
(17)
2 2

Where, z# 2 = s1 z1 , and s1 ( z1 ) = ( z1 + 2ω0 )ΔC ad _ m − 2 .

r 3 / G3

J +m 2
r2
G
Then, the control law in (18) can robustly stabilize the electric vehicle system with any
parametric uncertainties:

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174 Urban Transport and Hybrid Vehicles

z# 3 − L2f h( X )
u= (18)
Lg L f h( X )

Where,

z# 3 = s2 ( z2 − s2 z1 ) (19)

s2 =
T12
{
− 1 − T1 − β 6 ΔRm − T1 ⎡⎣3 + 2α 2 z1 + 4α 2ω0 ⎤⎦ΔC ad _ m

( )
2
− β 6 ΔRms1 − 1 + ⎡ α 4 z12 + (α 3 + 3α 4ω0 )z1 + (2α 3ω0 + 3α 4ω0 2 ) ΔC ad _ m
⎣
(20)

+α 2 Δμrr _ m + (α 7 z1 + α 8 )ΔRm ⎤⎦ }
2
/4

( ) ( ) (
T1 = (2α1 z1 + 2α1ω0 )ΔCad _ m + 2 ; α1 = r 3 / G3 / J + mr 2 / G2 ; α2 = mgρ ACd ( r / G) / J + mr 2 / G2 ; )
4 2

α 3 = B ( r / G ) / ( J + mr 2 / G 2 ) ; α 4 = ρ AC d ( r / G ) / ( J + mr 2 / G 2 ) ;
3 2 6 2

( )
α 5 = 2Laf / ( J + mr 2 / G 2 ) / La + L f ; α 6 = 2 /( La + L f ) ; α 7 = α 5
1
2 Laf
ρ AC d 3 ;
r3
G

α8 = α5 ρ AC d 3 ω0 + α 5
1 r3 B
.
Laf G Laf
Fig. 9 shows the robustness test result of a controller designed for a light-weighted EV,
compared against a regular PID controller, with parameters as specified in Table 1. To
facilitate the graphical representation, the sudden change in hill climbing angle (0.1 rad) is

Fig. 9. Robustness test of the non-linear robust controller

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Control of Electric Vehicle 175

applied on the nonlinear robust controller system at t=20 s and on the double-loop PID
controller at t=50 s. Shown in Fig. 10 is the excellent robust performance of the designed
controller under parameter uncertainties. The test is performed with the arbitrary

±10% uncertainty in the aforementioned three uncertain parameters. Again, for comparison
combinations (i.e., uncertainty in single parameter, two parameters and three parameters) of

purpose, the performance of (double loop) PID controller and the nonlinear optimal
controller are plotted in Fig. 11 and Fig. 12 respectively.
To systematically test the performance, the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) is used.
The New European Driving Cycle is a driving cycle consisting of four repeated ECE-15
driving cycles and an Extra-Urban driving cycle, or EUDC (wry, 2003). The test results are
shown in F.g. 13 (the maximum speed is scaled to 50km/h here). It is shown that the
nonlinear controller has much better tracking performance than the double loop PID
controller, especially in the range of speed below designed nominal speed. And it does not
increase much amp-hour consumption (nonlinear optimal: 4.48km/11.97AH; nonlinear
robust: 4.825km/10.78AH; PID: 4.49km/10.67AH).

Motor Vehicle
La + Lf (mH) 6.008 m (kg) 800

ρ (kg/m3)
Ra + Rf (Ω) 0.12 A (m2) 1.8
B (N.M.s) 0.0002 1.25

φ (°)
J (kg. m2) 0.05 Cd 0.3

μrr
Laf (mH) 1.766 0
V (V) 0~48 0.015

ωnom (r/min)
i (A) 78A (250max) r (m) 0.25
2800 (v=25km/h) G 11
Table 1. Parameters of the electric vehicle system

30

25

20
Speed,km/hr

15

10
Startup Step = 1
Startup Step = 0.8
5 Startup Step = 0.6
Startup Step = 0.4

0
0 5 10 15 20 25
time,s

Fig. 10. Robustness test of the non-linear robust controller

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176 Urban Transport and Hybrid Vehicles

30

25

20
Speed, km/hr

15

10

Startup Step = 1
5 Startup Step = 0.8
Startup Step = 0.6
Startup Step = 0.4
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
time,s

Fig. 11. Performance of non-linear optimal controller

30

25

20
Speed, km/hr

15

10

Startup Step = 1
5 Startup Step = 0.8
Startup Step = 0.6
Startup Step = 0.4
0
0 5 10 15 20 25
time,s

Fig. 12. Performance of double-loop PID controller

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Control of Electric Vehicle 177

60
PID controller
40 NEDC standard
20

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
60
Speed, km/hr

Nonlinear Optimal
40 NEDC standard
20

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
60
Nonlinear Robust
40 NEDC standard
20

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
time, s

Fig. 13. Results of new European Driving Cycle test

4.2 Driven by brushless DC motor

BLDC motor is a closed loop system in nature. The back EMF introduces a negative
feedback signal proportional to the motor speed, which enhances the damping of the
system. Assume all the initial conditions are zero, the Laplace transform of (7) is:

⎧ud (s ) = E(s ) + i(s ) ⋅ R + L ⋅ s ⋅ i(s )

⎪E(s ) = K ⋅ n(s )
⎪
⎨
⎪ = T ⋅ i( s )
e
(21)

⎪⎩Te (s ) = TL (s ) + f ω (s ) + J ⋅ s ⋅ ω( s )
Te ( s ) K

Therefore, the dynamic model of an EV driven by BLDC can be obtained as shown in Fig. 14.

ud ( s ) 1 i( s) Te ( s ) 1 ω (s)
R + Ls Js + f
KT

TL ( s)
E (s)
Ke

Fig. 14. Dynamic model of an EV driven by BLDC

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178 Urban Transport and Hybrid Vehicles

The transfer function of the inverter can be given as:

Gpwm (s ) =
K pwm
Ts ⋅ s + 1
(22)

Where, Kpwm: gain of inverter; TS: time constant of PWM controller.

The controller of a BLDC is generally composed of current regulation loop and speed
regulation loop. In practical systems, due to the fact that the electromagnetic time constant is
smaller than electromechanical time constant, current regulation is faster than speed
regulation. Hence, speed regulation is faster than the variation of back EMF. Therefore, the
effect of back EMF on current regulation loop can be neglected. In order to have small
overshoot and good tracking performance, current regulation should be designed as type-I
system. Since there are two inertia elements, the current regulator should be designed as PI
regulator, whose transfer function is:

Ti ⋅ s + 1
Gi ( s ) = K pi ⋅ = K pi ⋅ (1 +
1
Ti ⋅ s Ti ⋅ s
) (23)

Where, Kpi: the proportional coefficient of current regulator; Ti: time constant of current
regulator.
The structure of the current regulator is shown as the internal loop in Fig. 15. Negnecting
the effect of back EMF on the current regulation loop, the stator circuit of the motor can be
approximated as a first-order inertia element, hence:

= =
1
is 1
us R + L ⋅ s Ta ⋅ s + 1
R (24)

Where, Ta = L/R.
The structure of the speed regulation is shown as the external loop in Fig. 15 (Wu et al.,
2005). The speed regulation system should have no steady error at steady state and good
anti-disturbance capability at transient state, the speed regulator should be designed as
type-II system. The speed regulation loop is composed of an integration element and an
inertia element, a PI regulator should be used, leading to a transfer function:

Tω ⋅ s + 1
Gω (s ) = K pω ⋅
Tω ⋅ s
(25)

Where, Kpw: proportional coefficient of speed regulator; Tw: time constant of speed regulator.
ir is ωr
ω ref 1 1 K pwm us 1/R 1
K pω (1 + ) K pi (1 + ) Kc
Tω s Ti s Ts s +1 Ta s +1 Js + f
TL
Vehicle
dynamics

Kω

Fig. 15. Structure of the controller for EV driven by BLDC

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Control of Electric Vehicle 179

4.3 Driven by PMSM

When designing a controller for PMSM motor, generally two control strategies, i.e., vector
control and direct torque control (DTC), are used. In DTC, Stator flux linkage is estimated by
integrating the stator voltages. Torque is estimated as a cross product of estimated stator
flux linkage vector and measured motor current vector. The estimated flux magnitude and
torque are then compared with their reference values. If either the estimated flux or torque
deviates from the reference more than allowed tolerance, the transistors of the variable
frequency drive are turned off and on in such a way that the flux and torque will return in
their tolerance bands as fast as possible. Thus direct torque control is one form of the
hysteresis or bang-bang control. In vector control, the stator phase currents are measured
and converted into a corresponding complex (space) vector. This current vector is then
transformed to a coordinate system rotating with the rotor of the machine. The position can
then be obtained by integrating the speed. Then the rotor flux linkage vector is estimated by
multiplying the stator current vector with magnetizing inductance Lm and low-pass filtering
the result with the rotor no-load time constant Lr/Rr, that is, the ratio of the rotor inductance
to rotor resistance. Using this rotor flux linkage vector the stator current vector is further
transformed into a coordinate system where the real x-axis is aligned with the rotor flux
linkage vector. The real x-axis component of the stator current vector in this rotor flux
oriented coordinate system can be used to control the rotor flux linkage and the imaginary
y-axis component can be used to control the motor torque.
In DTC, the switching speed is low, and the controlled motor generally has low inductance.
Therefore, significant current and torque ripples are observed at low speed, limiting the
speed regulation range of the controlled system. While the vector control can handle such
problems very well (Liu et al., 2004). No matter under low-speed or high-speed condition,
the motor current can respond very well once the current waveform required for certain
rotation speed is given. The q-axis component of the current is proportional to the torque
component needed, giving an excellent performance in dynamic response. Although the
vector control algorithm is more complicated than the DTC, the algorithm is not needed to
be calculated as frequently as the DTC algorithm. Also the current sensors need not be the
best in the market. Thus the cost of the processor and other control hardware is lower
making it suitable for applications where the ultimate performance of DTC is not required
(Telford et al., 2000). Therefore, vector control is selected in the EV control.
When the number of poles is fixed, the torque of a PMSM is determined by the stator
current, therefore, the control of the motor is to control the current. Generally, the stator
current is is first decomposed in the d-q cordinate, in which d-axis is aligned with the rotor
flux and the q-axis is vertical to d-axis.

is = id + jiq (26)

After such decomposition, is can be represented as shown in Fig. 16.

It is shown that the stator current is decomposed along the rotor axis id component and
vertical to the rotor axis iq component. Then the control of the motor become the calculation
of the instantaneous rotor position, i.e., the ε as shown in Fig. 16. the parameter ε can be
obtained through sensor. Using an intermediate coordinate system α, β and its phase
current projections i and iβ, and the fact that ia + ib + ic = 0 , one obtains:

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180 Urban Transport and Hybrid Vehicles

β
q

is ωr d

iq δ
ε
α =a
Fig. 16. Current vector decomposition

⎧iα = ia
⎪
⎨
⎪iβ = 3 iα + 3 iβ
1 2 (27)
⎩
id and iq are then deduced from i and iβ by a rotation of the angle ε:

⎡ id ⎤ ⎡ cos ε sin ε ⎤ ⎡ iα ⎤
⎢ ⎥=⎢ ⎢ ⎥
⎣⎢ iq ⎦⎥ ⎣ sin ε cos ε ⎦⎥ ⎣⎢ iβ ⎦⎥
(28)

With proper coordinate transformation, the electric torque of a synchronous motor is

described as follows:

Td = P ∗ Φ * iq (29)

Where, Φ : flux linkage.

It is shown that, for a magnetically isotropous machine the motor torque depends only on
the quadrature q current component (torque component). When δ = π / 2 (i.e., id = 0), the
optimal mode of operation is achieved, where the motor produces the maximum torque.
Currently, vector control (or FOC) is an effective method in variable frequency speed
regulation system in synchronous motors. It can obtain large instantaneous speed regulation
range. The stator current is measured, then transformed to rotor coordinate with coordinate
transformation, forming a current feedback, which can dynamically follow the variation of
the current. The speed and rotor position are obtained by optical encoder, forming the speed
loop, and finally implement the control of current and speed, greatly enchancing the
stability, response speed and control accuracy of the system.
The key to control of PMSM is the realization of high-performance control of motor
instantaneous torque. The requirements of torque control for PMSM can be summarized as
fast response, high accuracy, low ripple, high efficiency and high power factor, etc. There
are three regular methods in current control (Liu et al., 2009): 1) id = 0 control; 2) maximum
torque and current control; 3) id < 0 field weakening control. Other methods such as constant
flux linkage control or torque linear control are too complex to use.

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Control of Electric Vehicle 181

VDC

iqr + uqr uar

×
-
PI
Inverse Three-
Park SVPWM phase
transform inverter
idr=0 udr ußr 6
+

-
× PI

iSq iA
θ
a,b,c
—> iB
iSd
d,q

Position,
PMSM
speed sensor

Fig. 17. Vector control of PMSM

id = 0 control is simple to implement, and the EM torque and the stator current have a linear
relationship, hence having no demagnetizing effect. The disadvantages of this method is the
high stator voltage and low power factor at large load conditions, hence cannot fully utilize
capacity. In EV control, generally the capacity required is not very large, but it needs high
overload capability and good torque response performance. Hence, id = 0 control, together
with maximum torque-current ratio method, is selected as the solution in EV driven by
PMSM. Under such conditions, the structure of the controller is designed as shown in Fig. 17
(Cao & Fan, 2009).

rotating. With the pulse signal, the space position θ and rotor speed ωr can be calculated.
Optical encoder is installed the motor rotor, which accepts the pulse signal when the rotor is

Using the transforming factor e -jθr , id and iq are obtained by performing coordinate
transform from ABC-coordinate to dq-coordinate on iA, iB and iC (obtained by assuming
iC = - iA – iB here). The detected id and iq are compared with the reference value idr and iqr. The
error signal is used for regulation, e.g. PI regulator. The inverse Park transform is applied on
the calcuated input and then generator output by looking up the table. The generated
output is supplied to the three-phase inverter through SVPWM (Space Vector PWM), which
controls the motor.
In the SVPWM modulation system, the gain of the inverter can be expressed as:

KVSI =
U0
(30)
2U Δ

Where, U0: DC voltage input to the inverter; UΔ: amplitude of the triangular modulation
signal.
The control object of current loop is the DC-AC inverter and the stator circuit of the PMSM
motor. DC-AC inverter can generally be regarded as a first-order inertia element with time

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182 Urban Transport and Hybrid Vehicles

constant TPWM ( TPWM =

1
, where fΔ: frequency of the triangular modulation signal). The
2 fΔ
transfer function is:

GVSI (s ) =
KVSI
TPWM s + 1
(31)

With similar discussion in BLDC motor, the stator circuit of the motor is approximated by a
first-order inertia element. Introducing a PI regulator, the system is tuned to be type-I
element. The PI regulators used for d-axis and q-axis are the same, and the transfer function is:

PI i = K Pi (1 +
1
) (32)
Tii s

In this case, the structure of the current regulation system is shown as the internal loop in
Fig. 18. The close loop transfer function of the current regulation system can be simplified as
a first-order inertia element:

Gci (s ) = = =
Goi ( s ) Ki 1
1 + Goi (s ) s + ki sK i + 1
(33)

Where, K i = = ωc ; ωc : close-loop bandwidth of current loop.

K pi KVSI
Ta Rs
Hence, if a PI regulator is used for speed loop, with transfer function:

Gas (s ) = K s (1 +
1
) (34)
Ts s

Where, Ks, Ts: amplification coefficient and time constant of PI regulator respectively.
Then the overall model of control system is shown in Fig. 18, with the outer loop being the
speed loop (Brandstetter et al., 2008).

ω ref 1 iqs 1 KVSI uq 1/R iq 1 ωr

K s (1 + ) K pi (1 + ) Kc
Ts s Ti s TPWM s +1 Ta s +1 Js + f
TL
Vehicle
dynamics

Kω

Fig. 18. Control system model of EV driven by PMSM

4.4 Driven by inductor motor

Generally, VVVF based on steady motor model, DTC and vector control are used for the
speed regulation for induction motor applications. The first method does not consider the
complex dynamics inside the electric machine, therefore cannot achieve good dynamic
performance. With DTC, although it is not affected by the motor parameters, over-current

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Control of Electric Vehicle 183

may occur due to the fact that there is no current feedback. Under low speed condition, the
stator flux linkage is circular, and the current is close to sinusoidal. However, at high speed
condition, the current waveform is irregular. Large harmonic currents and electromagnetic
noises can be observed. Vector control, completely solved above issues. With vector control,
the control of AC induction motors is as simple as that of DC motor (Sun & Li, 2002).

under normal transform. First transform the model under A-B-C coordinate to α − β steady
The basic principle of vector control is that the magnetic force and power are invariant

coordinate (Clarke transform), then apply Park transform to the model under α − β steady
coordinate to d-q rotating coordinate.
Assume the windings of three phase A, B and C are symmetrical, and flowing through

synchronous speed ϖ l .
balanced sinusoidal current. Then the resultant magnetic force F is rotating with

(α,β) two dimension orthogonal system is (refer to Fig. 16):

Assume balanced three phase, the projection that modifies the three phase system into the

⎧iα = ia
⎪
⎨
⎪ i β = 3 i a + 3 ib
1 2 (35)
⎩
The (α,β)→(d,q) projection (Park transformation) is the most important transformation in
the vector control. This projection modifies a two phase orthogonal system (α,β) in the d,q
rotating reference frame. If we consider the d axis aligned with the rotor flux, for the current
vector, the relationship from the two reference frame:

⎡ id ⎤ ⎡ iα ⎤ ⎡ cosθ sin θ ⎤ ⎡iα ⎤

⎢ i ⎥ = C 2 s /2 r ⎢i ⎥ = ⎢ ⎢ ⎥
⎣ q⎦ ⎣ β ⎦ ⎣ − sin θ cosθ ⎥⎦ ⎣iβ ⎦
(36)

Whose inverse transformation is:

⎡ iα ⎤ ⎡ cosθ − sin θ ⎤ ⎡id ⎤

⎢i ⎥ = ⎢ ⎢ ⎥
⎣ β ⎦ ⎣ sin θ cosθ ⎥⎦ ⎣ iq ⎦
(37)

The model of a three-phase induction model under d-q two-axis coordinate can be
expressed as follows.
Votlage equations:

⎡ uds ⎤ ⎡rs + Ls p −ϖ l Ls −ϖ l Lm ⎤ ⎡ ids ⎤

⎢u ⎥ ⎢ ⎢ ⎥
Lm p ⎥⎥ ⎢ iqs ⎥
Lm p
⎢ qs ⎥ = ⎢ 0 rs + Ls p ϖ l Ls
⎢udr ⎥ ⎢ Lm p −ϖ r Lm rr + Lr p ϖ s Lr ⎥ ⎢idr ⎥
. (38)
⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥
⎣⎢ qr ⎦⎥ ⎣ ϖ s Lm
u Lm p ϖ s Lr rr + Lr p ⎦ ⎣⎢ iqr ⎦⎥

Where, Ls = Lls + Lms , Lr = Llr + Lms , Lm = Lms , p = ; ϖ s = ϖ l − ϖ r , ϖ l : synchronous

3 3 3 d
2 2 2 dt
rotating speed.
Flux linkage equations:

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184 Urban Transport and Hybrid Vehicles

⎡ψ ds ⎤ ⎡ rs 0 ⎤ ⎡ ids ⎤
⎢ψ ⎥ ⎢ ⎢ ⎥
Lm ⎥⎥ ⎢ iqs ⎥
0 Lm
⎢ qs ⎥ = ⎢ 0
⎢ψ dr ⎥ ⎢Lm
0
0 ⎥ ⎢idr ⎥
rs
. (39)
⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥
⎢⎣ψ qr ⎥⎦ ⎣ 0
0 Lr
Lm 0 Lr ⎦ ⎢⎣ iqr ⎥⎦

Torque equation:

Te = PLm (iqs idr − ids iqr ) (40)

With these transformations, the stator current is decomposed into two DC components
aligned with rotor magnetic field, id and iq, with id corresponding to excitation current and iq
corresponding to torque current. These two currents can be controlled separately. Control of
id means control the flux, while control of iq means control of torque, which is like the control
of a DC motor, and then different control strategies can be easily applied on the control of
EV driven by induction motor. With vector control scheme, the structure of whole system
can be given as shown in Fig. 19.

Fig. 19. The control system of EV driven by induction motor with vector control scheme

5. Implementation of electric vehicle controller with DSP

As the development of the high computing capability microprocessor, such as DSP (Digital
Signal Processor), it is possible to perform advanced control strategies on the electric vehicle
and integrate complex functions to achieve optimal performance (Huang et al., 2007). These
capabilities can be utilized to enhance the performance and safety of individual vehicles as

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Control of Electric Vehicle 185

well as to operate vehicles in formations for specific purposes (Huang et al., 2007). In this
section, the design and implementation of an EV controller with DSP will be discussed.

•
An EV controller may preferably have following functions:
Due to the frequent acceleration/deceleration and up/down of EV, it is preferably that
the regenerative control function is included, to save energy in battery and hence

•
enhance the driving range per charge;

•
Self diagnostics and restoration from failure;

•
Scalable to function expansion;
And comprehensive protection functions, including over-temperature protection, over-
voltage and under-voltage protection, over-current protection, short-circuit protection,
motor-lock protection, and protection for control unit, main switch and security, etc.
Fig. 20 shows detailed implementation of a EV controller with DSP (Huang et al., 2007). The
whole system is composed of power circuit and control circuit. The control circuit include
two parts. One is the external control circuit including auxiliary power supply, MOSFET
driving circuit, isolation & protection circuit and contactor driving circuit. These circuits
have common ground with the battery group. Another one is the kernel control circuit,
including DSP kernel TMS320F2812, variant protection circuits, detection circuit, signal
conditioning circuit, CAN communication circuit, external watchdog circuit and isolated
auxiliary power system, etc.
Power circuit
Electric motor
Battery group

MOSFET
driver
Protection &
M
isolation
tachometer

DSP
auxiliary current/voltage/
power EV I/O temperature detection
supply
ADC
INT Flash speed/brake signal
Other
CAN RAM
modules
QEP Speed detection
CPU I/O

Protection circuit
External Contactor
Throttle
watchdog driver

Fig. 20. Structure of a DSP-based EV controller

The control flow of the whole system, as shown in Fig. 20, is that the DSP generate PWM
modulation signal, which is used to drive the power converter (chopper for DC motor and
inverter for AC motor) after isolation and amplification. The power converter controls
output of the battery to control the speed of the motor, and implement the energy

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186 Urban Transport and Hybrid Vehicles

regenerative control. The voltage, current and speed signal of motor are detected and sent to
DSP after signal conditioning, to form a feedback control.
The control circuit detects the voltage, current, temperature and rotation speed to realize the
function of regulation and protection, and provides support for implementation of
advanced control strategies. The voltage, current, and temperature are measured through
the quantification of AD converter in DSP kernel. The speed is detected with the QEP
(quadrature encoder pulse) inside the DSP, and the speed signal is used for realization of
loss-of-control protection, smooth startup control, anti-skip control during up-hill startup
and providing speed information for the driver. Speed regulation (throttle) and breaking
signal are generated by proper device and acquisited by AD of the DSP after signal
conditioning.
The gear shift is digital signal. It is input to the DSP through I/O after isolation and
amplitude limiting. The main contactor is connected in series with the power circuit. The
winding of the contactor is controled by digital signal output from the I/O of DSP, to switch
on or off the power circuit. In order to restore the whole system from severe failure, double
watchdog (internal and external) is used. When the DSP is invalidated, the external
watchdog can reset the chip to restore the normal operation of the controller. Even the DSP
chip is destroyed, the output of the controller is switched off due to the continuing resetting.
With this scheme, the security of the EV is assured even under severe failure in the
controller.
The power converter is controlled by PWM, which is generated by two event managers
(with one generating 16 PWM signals). The PWM’s generated by the event managers of DSP
are sent to drive the power converter after isolation and amplification. When there are faults
in the power converter or in driving circuit, the fault information is sent to DSP through its
I/O after isolation.
The configuration of controller parameters, various state information and fault information
are exchanged with external devices, such as portable computer, handheld programable
devices, or display monitor on the EV, through CAN (controller area network) bus, which is
controlled by the embedded CAN controller in DSP.
The power converter is composed of semiconductor power electronics devices and their
snubber circuit and freewheeling diodes. Power semiconductor is the key for power
conversion in EV controller. Now, new generation of power semiconductor devices are
developed and the performances are improved continuously. Presently, in most of EV
control applications, MOSFET (metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor) or IGBT
(insulated-gate field-effect transistor) is used. IGBT needs higher driving power, but has
lower working frequency. MOSFET has the advantage of simple driving circuit and low
conducting resistance, making it specially suitable for driving application in high-current
low-voltage motor. In this chapter, the results are all based on MOSFET.
The main flow chart of the software running inside the DSP processor is shown in Fig. 21. It
is a state-based processing system, in which the status of the whole EV system is detected in
a real-time manner, various functions are activated once certain failure is detected or specific
order is received. The maximum delay of processing different failure is one main-loop
processing cycle.
Fig. 22 is the test platform in laboratory, in which the load torque is a brake dynamometer.
Shown in Fig. 23 and Fig. 24 are the performance of regenerative braking and speed
regulation with a PMSM motor.

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Control of Electric Vehicle 187

Wait for A/D data

acquisition
Close output
Over-current Y Overload reported to
protection activated? main loop Record fault
N
Overload Y Current fault Report fault
(IC>critical)? processing
Detect fault
N
Y
VPOTL≈ 0.2V? POTL fault processing Fault
removed?
N
Recover normal
Batter voltage Y Voltage fault operation
abnormal? processing
N end

N
Throttle changed?

Y Close output of
S=BS？
controller
N
Y
S=NS？ NS->FS,RS Processing

N
Y
S=FS？ FS->NS,RS Processing

RS->NS,FS processing

N
BRK signal?

Y
Y Notes:
S=BS？ NS,RS,FS->BS process
Y： Yes
N N： No
Process data under S： current status
BRK status BS： brake status
NS： null status
Process data under FS： forward status
throttle status RS： backward status

Fig. 21. Operation of the EV controller

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188 Urban Transport and Hybrid Vehicles

Fig. 22. Test platform of controller

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Control of Electric Vehicle 189

Fig. 23. Waveform of battery charging current under regenerative braking

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190 Urban Transport and Hybrid Vehicles

Fig. 24. Performance test of speed control of the designed controller

6. Conclusion
In this chapter, the modeling of electric vehicle is discussed in detail. Then, the control of
electric vehicle driven by different motors is discussed. Both brushed and brushless DC
(Direct Current) motors are discussed. And for AC (Alternative Current) motors, the
discussion is focused on induction motor and permanent magnet synchronous motor. The
design of controllers for different motor-driven electric vehicle is discussed in-depth, and
the tested high-performance control strategies for different motors are presented. The
model-based controller is designed for brushed DC motor, while for other motors, model
based controllers can be designed in a similar way if the control strategies discussed in this
chapter are used. Finally, the implementation of the controller with DSP and some test
results with this platform are presented.

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Control of Electric Vehicle 191

7. References
wry, J.(2003). Electric Vehicle Technology Explained. pp. 183 – 195, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.,
ISBN 0-470-85163-5, UK
Cheng, Y., Van Mierlo, J., Van den Bossche, P.; Lataire, P. (2006). Energy Sources Control
and Management in Hybrid Electric Vehicles. Proc. 12th Int. Power Electronics and
Motion Control Conf., pp. 524 – 530, Portoroz, Slovenia, Aug. 2006
Sakai, S., Hori, Y. (2000). Advanced Vehicle Motion Control of Electric Vehicle Based on the
Fast Motor Torque Response. 5th International Symposium on Advanced Vehicle
Control, pp. 1-8 Michigan, USA, Aug., 2000
Liu, Q., Zhong, Y., Zhou Z. (2004). Research of drive control system in electric vehicle based
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 Urban Transport and Hybrid Vehicles
Edited by Seref Soylu

ISBN 978-953-307-100-8
Hard cover, 192 pages
Publisher Sciyo
Published online 18, August, 2010
Published in print edition August, 2010

This book is the result of valuable contributions from many researchers who work on both technical and
nontechnical sides of the field to be remedy for typical road transport problems. Many research results are
merged together to make this book a guide for industry, academia and policy makers.

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Qi Huang, Yong Chen and Jian Li (2010). Control of Electric Vehicle, Urban Transport and Hybrid Vehicles,
Seref Soylu (Ed.), ISBN: 978-953-307-100-8, InTech, Available from: http://www.intechopen.com/books/urban-
transport-and-hybrid-vehicles/control-of-electric-vehicle

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