Design of a power-split hybrid electric vehicle control system utilizing a rule-based controller and an equivalent consumption minimization strategy

The paper proposes a power-split hybrid electric vehicle control strategy that combines a rule-based controller, including a state-of-charge controller and engine start-stop logic, with a precisely formulated equivalent consumption minimization strategy. A one-dimensional directional search-based instantaneous equivalent consumption minimization strategy optimization and a two-dimensional directional search-based instantaneous equivalent consumption minimization strategy optimization are used to find optimal powertrain points in high-efficiency engine map regions that are previously determined by an offline optimization approach. The simulation results confirm that the rule-based controller performance can be significantly improved when extended with the proposed equivalent consumption minimization strategy formulation, without requiring an adaptive empirical penalty factor to satisfy the state-of-charge sustainability condition. The proposed rule-based + equivalent consumption minimization strategy control strategies were verified against a dynamic-programming-based optimization benchmark for different certification driving cycles.