Real-time predictive control strategy for a plug-in hybrid electric powertrain

Model predictive control is a promising approach to exploit the potentials of modern concepts and to fulfill the automotive requirements. Since, it is able to handle constrained multi-input multi-output optimal control problems. However, when it comes to implementation, the MPC computational effort may cause a concern for real-time applications. To maintain the advantage of a predictive control approach and improve its implementation speed, we can solve the problem parametrically. In this paper, we design a power management strategy for a Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid powertrain (PHEV) using explicit model predictive control (eMPC) based on a new control-oriented model to improve the real-time implementation performance. By implementing the controller to a PHEV model through model and hardware-in-the-loop simulation, we get promising fuel economy as well as real-time simulation speed.