Converted vehicle for battery electric drive: Aspects on the design of the soft-ware-driven vehicle control unit

At the Karlsruher Institute of Technology (KIT) a vehicle was converted for full battery electric drive within a cooperation of several faculties under the direction of the chair of vehicle technology. Within this paper the developed software to control the main functions of the vehicle will be presented and potentials to increase the energy efficiency will be discussed.

The software based vehicle control unit is the central control unit to realize drivers command with respect to the system parameters, which are important for safety, dynamics, range and comfort of the vehicle. The structure of the software architecture, the interaction with the main electric vehicle specific control units and components and the main implemented functions will be described within this paper.

The converted vehicle consists mainly of one electric motor with water cooled power electronics that drives the front axle, 21 battery modules controlled and managed by the battery management system, one on board charging device and an universal control unit.

Not only strategies for power recovery while braking, but also strategies for driving and operation can help increase the energy efficiency. ... mehrSelect measures to recover and safe energy are also shown.