Evaluation of Motor Characteristics for Hybrid Electric Vehicles Using the Hardware-in-the-Loop Concept

If the concept of Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) is applied to component testing, characteristic of component of hybrid electric vehicle in real vehicle environment can be evaluated without actually installing that component in real vehicle. In this paper, when commercially available test motor is adopted as a drivetrain of hybrid vehicle, we need to figure out which drive train configuration would be best for specific purpose. The characteristic of the motor when it is installed in the vehicle at different drive train and driving mode can be simulated and actual characteristic can be measured. Also both results can be compared. For the hardware characteristic measurement, test facility which consists of vehicle simulator and dynamometer is required. In this case, vehicle controller in the vehicle simulator is used as a vehicle controller and dynamometer is used to simulate vehicle dynamics. Two drive train types, 4-motor series, and 2-motor parallel type are proposed. Vehicle speed tracks driving cycle speed command well in both simulation and HIL implementation.