Model-based design of a scalable battery management system by using a low-cost Rapid Control Prototyping System

This paper presents the model-based design of a flexible scalable battery management system (BMS), consisting of hardware and software functions, for lithium-ion batteries by using a low-cost Rapid Control Prototyping (RCP) System. The BMS consists of a central control unit and decentralized cell modules. Because auf its topology, it can be scaled flexible to a varying number of battery cells. It measures voltages, currents and temperatures, to avoid critical and lifetime shortening operating conditions. States like state of charge (SoC) and power capability are estimated, calculated and predicted therefor. The full capacity of each cell in the pack is used, by means of active or passive load balancing. The BMS functions are developed by using a low-cost RCP system, which consists of an open source simulation tool and a low cost hardware platform. The development of a nonlinear SoC estimator and an active balancing function will be used as an example for the model-based design process.