SAE International WCX: Teoresi among the gurus in engineering mobility in Detroit 

From April 5 to 7th, we will participate in the SAE International’s WCX World Congress Experience 2022, in Detroit, Michigan. The congress is the biggest event dedicated to mobility where mechanical, electronics and software engineers, experts of innovation and sustainability, gather from all over the world to share, learn and network to connect resources, people and knowledge to find solutions to the mobility complex challenges.

Among the topics discussed, the congress will deal with the mass deployment of electric vehicles, the developmental timelines for autonomous vehicles, and the global supply chain strongly impacting the automotive industry. 

The contribution of Teoresi

Within the technical sessions dedicated to Advanced Propulsion, Teoresi, represented by Bernardo Sessa and Francesco de Nola, will present a scientific paper co-authored with the Università di Napoli Federico II, on the subject of fuel consumption and emission control on hybrid vehicles. 

Title: Comparative Analysis on Fuel Consumption Between Two Online Strategies for P2 Hybrid Electric Vehicles: Adaptive-RuleBased (A-RB) vs Adaptive-Equivalent Consumption Minimization Strategy (A-ECMS)
When: April 7^th, 2022, 1:30 PM – Room 140 C
Session: Controls for Hybrids and Electric Powertrains, Part 2

We asked Bernardo Sessa, Expert Engineer at Teoresi, for some details.

What do you do in Teoresi? 

I am a team leader of the Computer-Aided Calibration Tools development team for an important automotive customer and for some years, I have been a tutor and supervisor for the mechanical engineering master’s degree theses developed in Teoresi in collaboration with the Industrial Engineering department of the University of Naples Federico II.

The paper was born from one of these degree theses and highlights one of the innovative lines of research linked to the sustainability of transportation in which Teoresi operates. What is it specifically about? 

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) represent one of the main technological options for reducing vehicle fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, however, advantages deriving from HEVs depend on the energy management strategy on-board of the vehicle. In the paper, we evaluate and compare some of these strategies. 

We realized an HEV model and we implemented the strategies identified; the comparison resulted in the optimal control strategy, which allows to minimize fuel consumption. The main output consists of the optimal power-split, that is how the driver’s power request has to be distributed between the internal combustion engine and the electric one. The task is challenging because the implementation, even though in virtual scenarios that simulate reality, involves taking into account numerous unpredictable variables as well as a large number of constraints. 

Research activities are often the response to a market need and are characterized by an immediate concrete application. How could the world of smart mobility change with the solution proposed in the paper?

One of the most important aspects of the paper is that we can actually implement the evaluated control strategies on real control units. This is the result of a not so obvious precise desire for concreteness that was emerged since the genesis of the paper. In fact: literature is full of excellent control solutions, which, however, cannot be implemented as they require information that is not available onboard the vehicle, unlike ours which, on the other hand, are supported by existing data. 

What is expected in terms of contribution is that in the continuation of the activity we can actually verify, onboard the vehicle, the reduction of fuel consumption and therefore of CO2 which we have seen reach peaks of 15% during the simulation. 

To know more technical information about the paper research activity, click here.
Visit the innovation section of the website to learn about research activities in Teoresi, the theses and the publication realized in collaboration with the main Italian and European universities.