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Conference Name: 2012 American Control Conference Date of Conference: 27–29 June 2012 In this paper, concurrent design of controllers for a vehicle equipped with a parallel hybrid powertrain is studied. Our work focuses on designing the two control algorithms, the energy management and the vehicle stability, concurrently which are traditionally considered separately. Dynamic Programming (DP) technique is used in order to obtain the optimal response trace for the controllers. In energy management strategy torque split ratio between engine and electric motor is used as a control signal. Additionally, in vehicle dynamics control strategy the torque split factor between front and rear axles is used as a control signal. Minimizing the fuel consumption and wheel slip is used as cost functions in energy management and vehicle dynamics control strategies respectively. Two dynamic problems are solved separately first and compared to the concurrent solution of the problems. Results show promising benefits can be obtained from the concurrent DP solution and rule extraction for designing better hybrid vehicle controllers. © 2012 AACC American Automatic Control Council).

The conversion efficiency of three way catalytic converters is mainly defined by the temperature range wherein they are operating. Traditionally, ignition retard has been used to reduce the light-off time of the catalyst. This is however associated with a fuel penalty. With increasing vehicle electrification, electrically heating facilities present an alternative, especially for hybrid vehicles. Nevertheless, system complexity of hybrid vehicles prevents engineers to evaluate possible heating technologies and their corresponding fuel penalty with respect to traditional solutions. This paper evaluates the application of an electrically heated catalyst on a hybrid vehicle equipped with a Natural Gas (NG) engine. The effect of heating power on light-off time and fuel penalty is determined, using analysis techniques emerging from integrated powertrain control. By means of a case study, the importance of an integral approach is explained by comparing the fuel penalty and conversion efficiency improvement of electric heating with that of ignition retard. In this process, a mix of simulation and test data were combined, forming the foundations for future control developments of a suitable light-off strategy. © 2010 Institut français du pétrole.

The conversion efficiency of three way catalytic converters is mainly defined by the temperature range wherein they are operating. Traditionally, ignition retard has been used to reduce the light-off time of the catalyst. This is however associated with a fuel penalty. With increasing vehicle electrification, electrically heating facilities present an alternative, especially for hybrid vehicles. Nevertheless, system complexity of hybrid vehicles prevents engineers to evaluate possible heating technologies and their corresponding fuel penalty with respect to traditional solutions. This paper evaluates the application of an electrically heated catalyst on a hybrid vehicle equipped with a Natural Gas (NG) engine. The effect of heating power on light-off time and fuel penalty is determined, using analysis techniques emerging from integrated powertrain control. By means of a case study, the importance of an integral approach is explained by comparing the fuel penalty and conversion efficiency improvement of electric heating with that of ignition retard. In this process, a mix of simulation and test data were combined, forming the foundations for future control developments of a suitable light-off strategy. © 2010 Institut français du pétrole.