Energy management strategy for a hybrid tug based on explicit model predictive control

To enhance fuel efficiency and address the challenge of high computational demands associated with Model Predictive Control (MPC), which hinders real-time implementation in the energy management of hybrid propulsion tugs, this paper proposes an Energy Management Strategy (EMS) based on Explicit Model Predictive Control (EMPC). Initially, a parallel hybrid propulsion tug system model consisting of a diesel engine, electric motor, energy storage system, and gearbox is established. Subsequently, by formulating the energy management optimal control problem with fuel consumption and emissions as the objective function, the problem is transformed into a multi-parameter quadratic optimization problem. The EMPC control law is obtained by offline solving the multi-parameter quadratic optimization problem. Finally, simulation results under typical operating conditions demonstrate that the EMPC-based energy management strategy improves fuel efficiency by 18.9% and reduces the strategy implementation time by 90.9%, showcasing its significant potential for engineering applications.