Energy management of through-the-road parallel hybrid vehicles

The paper presents a study on optimal energy management of through-the-road parallel hybrid vehicles, obtainable by suitably upgrading existing conventional cars. The main features and potential benefits associated to such a mild, after-market hybridization are firstly discussed, before introducing main methodological aspects, both in terms of mathematical modeling approach and benchmarks for realtime implementable control strategies. Then, a dynamic programming optimization procedure was set-up, thus allowing performing an exhaustive scenario analysis. The outcomes of such an analysis allow evaluating the fuel saving margins, within which it is possible to fall depending on the selected through-the-road vehicle architecture. Particularly, it is possible to quantify the fuel saving potential of the specific hybrid vehicle topology here examined, on one hand, and, on the other, to establish the reference benchmark, addressed by dynamic-programming derived optimality level, to which to refer when developing real-time energy management policies.