Innovative Electronic Systems for Vehicular and Nautical Applications Roberto Saletti, Sergio Saponara, Luca Fanucci, Federico Baronti, Roberto Roncella,

Innovative Electronic Systems for Vehicular and Nautical Applications

Roberto Saletti, Sergio Saponara, Luca Fanucci, Federico Baronti, Roberto Roncella, Pierangelo Terreni

Dipartimento Ingegneria dell’Informazione

University of Pisa, Italy

E-mail: [email protected]

APPLEPIES Roma June 11, 2012

mailto:[email protected]

APPLEPIES – Roma – June 11, 2012 Roberto Saletti 2

Outline

• Motivations• Electronics for vehicle applications

Embedded systems for automotive applications• Electric and/or hybrid vehicles

– Energy Storage Systems– Battery Management Systems

• Electronic replacement of mechanical subsystems– AMDS (Advanced Mechatronic Door System)

• Electronics for nautical applications Superyacht market segment (Luxury yacht with LOA > 24m)

• Integrated data acquisition systems Innovative sensors for boat and seawater parameter

measurement• Freeboard measurements• Seawater density measurement


Motivations

• Conference aim and scope “defining the activities, topics, objectives and research areas

of the applications of electronics” “the application domain – which was once considered as a

separate level over the technology – is now a part of the technology itself”

• Show on-going activities in the electronic applications’ research field at the University of Pisa

• Show application systems where “hardware and software are the different faces of the same coin”

• Show examples of applications where electronics is the key factor for progress and improvement


Vehicular applications

• The most significant improvements in last years vehicular market come from electronics Control

• Combustion control, Emission control, Traction control, Stability control, Drive-by-wire, steer-by-wire, X-by-wire

Safety• Active safety, Multiple Air-bags, Assisted braking systems,

Intelligent seat belts, Parking aid and collision avoidance systems

Info-tainments• Vehicle-infrastructure communication, Traffic info, Navigational

aids and info, Kids and passengers entertainment

• Vehicles contains hundreds of ECUs, communication systems and multiple computer networks


Trends for present/future vehicles

• Increased environmental sensibility

• More stringent rules and laws for polluting emissions

Electric and/or hybrid vehicles

ZEV (Zero-Emission Vehicle)

• Replacement of mechanical systems with mixed (mechanical/electronics) ones that give unexpected performance with affordable costs


Electric/hybrid vehicles

• An energy storage systems is mandatory Proper storage of energy Allows energy recovery during braking

• Rechargeable batteries are the solution

• Common rechargeable battery chemistries: Lead acid NiCd NiMH Li-ion Li-polymer Li-Iron-Phosphate (LiFePO4)

…

battery of choice for portable applications:mobile phones, laptops, ecc.

dominant in automotive (engine starter) and industrial applications (power backup and grid-load leveling systems)

current choice for hybrid vehicles


Comparison of battery energy densities

Source: www.mpoweruk.com

Due to the excellent performance in energy density and power density Lithium chemistry is emerging also in high power applications


Lithium chemistry

• Very high energy density, no memory effect,very low self-discharge, very high efficiency, etc.

• Very sensitive to overcharge and deep discharge and to exceeding specific temperature range Cell life shortening, …, risk of explosion

• Different technologies: Different choices for electrodes and insulator materials Lots of ongoing researches …

• Battery cells safety is mandatory Here comes Electronics Safety is increased by an electronic management system

(Battery Management System – BMS)


Battery Management System (BMS)

• Low-level functions: Cell voltage and temperature monitoring Current monitoring Cell balancing Communication with a host device

• High-level functions: Maintain each cell of the battery pack within its safe

operating range Estimate SoC (State-of-Charge) and SoH (State-of-Health) Increase the battery pack lifetime Manage thermal aspects

…and of course very little power consumption(al least when the battery current is zero)


BMS: hierarchical platform

• Electric vehicle battery (300-400 V) up to 1 kV for distributed energy storage in smart-grids Roughly 100 or more series-connected high-capacity

elementary cells

• Battery pack usually partitioned in modules From 4 to 14 cells per module

• BMS architecture reflects thephysical structure of the battery

Cell

Module

Pack


BMS: hierarchical platform (cont.)

• PMU (Pack Management Unit)• MMU (Module Management Unit)• CMU (CellMonitoringUnit)• PPS (Pack ProtectionSwitch) • MBS (Module Bypass Switch)

......CMU

MMU

CMU

PMU

...CMU

MMU

CMU

Vehicle Management System• High flexibility and scalability• Redundancy support• Dynamic pack reconfiguration

through the MBS• Module-level active balancing


BMS: Cell Monitoring Unit

• Benefits of an intelligent cell: Local voltage and temperature measurement Cell identification Cell history (lifetime, cycle number, etc) Second market application

• Very simple design A small 8-bit µC w/ 10-bit ADC Few external components to provide isolated communication with the MMU


BMS: CMU design example

• CMU implementation with discrete off-the-shelf components

CMU prototype applied to a 31 Ah LiPo cell


BMS: MMU design example


MMU: board prototype

AuxCell

Connectorsto the CMUs

Active charge equalizer based on a Buck-Boost Converter with super-capacitor


BMS: MBS design example

• Isolated gate driving• Very low dead-time• Liquid cooled heatsink


BMS: MBS design example (cont.)

• Battery pack for a fuel-cell hybrid small van(steady state current up to 160 A)

• ΔT=70 °C &PD

MBS=66W@ Ibattery=160 A

• Little efficiencydegradation

• e.g. N=11Vcell=3.7 V %1

cellcell

2

cell

NV

Ir

INV

Ir

INV

P MBSon

MBSon

MBSD

At maximum load!


BMS: hierarchical platform prototype

• Hydrogen Fuel Cell Hybrid Electric Vehicle (H2FC-HEV) which is being developed at University of Pisa 14.4 kW hydrogen fuel cell 155 V - 40 Ah LiPo battery pack

M. Ceraolo et al., “Experiences of realisation and test of a fuel-cell based vehicle,” SPEEDAM 2010



• Module implementation: 11 40 Ah LiPo cells FC-HEV battery built up of 4 modules 11 CMUs 1 MMU 1 MBS

• Electronic system with: Hardware

• 14 microcontrollers• FPGA• Power devices• Hall sensors• Temperature sensors

Software/firmware• 3 level hierarchical applications

– Low level micro firmware– Medium level micro firmware– High level Labview application



• Module implementation: MMU connected to a PC

by CAN bus LabVIEW app emulates

the PMU Testing of BMS

functionalities Screenshot refers to an

on-going balancing cycle (see the differences in cell voltages)

http://www.ediprogetti.it/index.php


Electronic replacement of mechanical parts

• Advanced Mechatronics Door System E-Latch

• Fully electronic vehicle latch• Existing sensors• Electrical motor drive for actuation

Cinched door• Electrically activated door closure

Electrical crystal glass control with anti-pinch control

• A challenge for the stringent automotive specs


Superyacht nautical market

• Italy is by far the world largest producer of superyachts

• Nautical market has collapsed because of the global financial crisis

• New impulse is expected after the crisis

• New products and applications are expected to come


Electronics application to Superyacht test

• Superyachts are complex systems embedding hundreds of heterogeneous electronic controlled systems

• Lack of integration and standardization

• Extensive Test & Correction procedure before final delivery to customers

• So far, manual registration of the data displayed on the dashboard, combined with feelings of expert drivers


Dedicated acquisition system for Ferretti

• Multi-sensor, multi-protocol acquisition system

• Integrated and synchronous acquisition @1 Hz from: Engine subsystems

(CAN SAE-J1939, CANOpen) Navigation subsystem

(Raymarine SeaTalk, NMEA-0183)

Flap and Trim subsystems (Analog, CANOpen, MODBUS TCP/IP)

Custom two-axis wireless inclinometer

• Automatic configuration for hundreds of yacht models


DAQ features

• Unified user interface for data visualization• System guided automatic test procedure• Test results are stored and compared with references• Remote analysis of the test results


Useful data


Innovative sensors for nautical applications

• Freeboards measurements to provide information about the yacht weight and trim Wireless sensor network of magnetostrictive linear

displacement sensors


Freeboards measurements


Freeboards measurement results I

Data acquired from different nodes are strictly related


Freeboards measurement results II

The operator’s weight (90 kg) causes a not negligible error!

≈ 20 mm


Electronic seawater density meter

• Magnetostrictive displacement sensors to read the immersion of a structure semifloating in seawater

• Immersion depends on seawater density

ρ0

ΔL hs h

wf

ρ>ρ0

Surfacespherical probe

Weighted float

1000 1010 1020995

1000

1005

1010

1015

1020

1025

Glass hydrometer readings (and linear fit )Electronic density meter readings (and linear fit )

Wat

er d

ensi

ty (

g/dm

3 )

Theorical water density at 25°C


Conclusions

• Overview of research activities at the University of Pisa on the application of Electronics

• Main research fields are Vehicular electronics Nautical applications

• All the examples show a deep interaction between Hardware

• Sensors and data conditioning and conversion• Controllers• Power devices

Software• Microcontroller firmware• Higher level software (C++, Labview, Web applications)

• Knowledge of the application domain is mandatory Electronic engineers are ever more often asked to tackle and solve

multidisciplinary (mechanical, thermal, etc.) issues

Documents

Innovative Electronic Systems for Vehicular and Nautical Applications Roberto Saletti, Sergio Saponara, Luca Fanucci, Federico Baronti, Roberto Roncella,