Regenerative Suspension System for Electric Vehicles

从内燃机到电动汽车的全球转型正在顺利进行，而且是不可避免的。根据加拿大电动汽车技术路线图（evTRM）的一份文件，“到2018年，加拿大道路上将至少有50万辆可用于公路的插电式电动汽车。”在实现这一目标的过程中，加拿大的大学、工业和政府面临着许多挑战和机遇，这一战略愿景包括高速公路电池电动、插电式和其他混合动力汽车。据evTRM称，虽然拥有丰富可再生电力的加拿大正在与其他国家竞相采用电动汽车，但它在研究和商业化方面并没有保持竞争优势。美国、欧洲共同体和亚洲国家在制定积极的目标和投资方面超过了加拿大，以实现这些目标——让电动汽车上路，并建立一个新的汽车工业。为了在这一领域获得竞争优势，需要从学术研究开始，一直到成功的商业化，以实现这一不断发展的行业的全部利益。全球致力于提高电动汽车性能的研发工作已将电池性能确定为阻碍该技术全面或立即普及的关键瓶颈。今天的电池组价格昂贵，只能存储相对较低的能量。在目前的情况下，一辆电动汽车不能满足北美人每天长途通勤的需求，在PI看来，这是通用汽车雪佛兰Volt消亡的关键原因。通用汽车目前的努力是重新设计并在2015-2016年推出这款车。虽然通过开发新材料来提高电池功率的研究工作正在全面展开，但能量收集技术可以在延长电池功率和车辆行驶里程方面发挥关键作用。目前开发的关键能量收集技术是基于再生制动的。虽然这项技术在城市驾驶中更有意义，因为城市中刹车更常用，但再生刹车在高速公路的稳态运行中充电效率较低，而高速公路是北美人日常通勤的主要部分。我对当前提案的设想是，通过一个可行的研究项目，开发一种独特而创新的能量收集技术，通过有效地捕获悬挂系统中的振动能量，否则就会浪费掉。该系统预计将收集足够的电力为电池充电，同时在必要时也用作主动驾驶、操纵和稳定控制的致动器。我特别感兴趣的是实现一种硬件/软件智能系统，以便在长途（低振幅高加速度）高速公路行驶时从悬架中收集能量。拟议的研究将利用我在传感器和执行器方面的机电研究专业知识，以及我在非线性动力学和控制系统方面的良好理论背景，来实现带宽增强的再生悬架系统。拟议的研究计划将包括各种相互关联的项目，以支持hqp，并最终帮助该领域的加拿大初创公司（仅温哥华就有三家），这些公司有很好的想法，但资源有限。这里讨论的想法代表了原创和创新的概念，最终将导致突破性的进步。这项为期五年的研究计划的结果是一个商业化的原型悬挂系统，可以有效地在能源产生和控制模式之间切换。

The global transition from internal combustion engine to electric drive vehicles is well on its way, and is inevitable. According to a document by the Electric Vehicle Technology Roadmap (evTRM) for Canada [1], “by 2018, there will be at least 500,000 highway-capable plug-in electric-drive vehicles on Canadian roads.” This strategic vision for highway-capable battery-electric, plug-in and other hybrid-electric vehicles has identified many challenges and opportunities for Canadian universities, industry and government to meet this goal. While Canada, with abundance of renewable electric power, is in a race with other countries towards adopting electric cars, according to evTRM, it has not maintained a competitive advantage in research and commercialization. United States, European community and Asian countries have overtaken Canada in setting aggressive goals and investments to achieve them—in getting electric vehicles on the road and establishment of a new auto industry. In order to gain a competitive advantage in this area, a coordinate effort is required that starts from academic research, moving all the way to successful commercialization to realize the full benefits of this growing industry. Global R&D efforts focusing on enhancing the performance of electric drive vehicles have identified battery performance as the key bottleneck, hindering the complete or immediate embracement of this technology. Today’s battery packs are expensive and are only able to store a relatively low amount of energy. In the current setting, an electric car does not meet the North American long haul daily commute demands, and this, in the PI’s opinion, has been the key reason for demise of GM’s Chevrolet Volt. GM’s current effort is to redesign and launch this vehicle in 2015-2016 [2]. While research effort into improving battery power is in full gear through the development of new materials, the energy harvesting technology can play a crucial role in extending battery power and vehicle operational range. The key energy harvesting technology currently exploited is based on regenerative braking. Although this technology makes more sense for city driving where brakes are more often used, regenerative brakes are less effective in charging the battery during steady-state highway operation—the main portion of an average North American daily commute. My vision for the current proposal is to develop – through a viable research program – a unique and innovative energy harvesting technology by efficiently capturing the vibratory energy in the suspension system that otherwise is wasted. The system is envisaged to harvest sufficient power to charge a battery while being also used as an actuator for active ride, handling and stability control when necessary. My particular interest is to arrive at a hardware/software intelligent system to harvest energy from the suspension during long haul (low-amplitude high-acceleration) highway driving. The proposed research will utilize my mechatronic research expertise in sensors and actuators, as well as my well established theoretical background in nonlinear dynamics and control systems, to arrive at a bandwidth enhanced regenerative suspension system. The proposed research program will include various interconnected projects that support HQPs and ultimately assist the Canadian start-up companies in this area (three in Vancouver alone), with good ideas but limited resources. The ideas discussed herein represent original and innovative concepts that will ultimately lead to groundbreaking advances. The outcome of this five year research program is a pre-commercialization prototype suspension system that efficiently switches between energy generation and control modes.