The role and use of robust multivariable control in hybrid electric vehicle energy management - Part I: An overview

In this paper, we overview the design and development of robust multivariable control design to highlight some of the pragmatic automotive engineering control issues with an emphasis on a non-trivial application of Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) Torque Management. We shall outline that most existing torque management approaches are not model-based dynamical systems, or do not address key concepts of robust stability and performance. We shall also discuss some advantages that robust control systems could offer to a wider automotive control applications. In part II, we show representative simulation results verifying that robust control systems design could be a breakthrough to the production of hybrid electric vehicles by yielding significant improvements on the emission, fuel consumption, calibration time and cost. Our contribution is aimed at the fact that cutting-edge robust controllers could be broadly adopted to tackle increasingly challenging problems of the automotive industry.