Intelligent Control for Optimal Performance of a Fuel Cell Hybrid Auto Rickshaw

A number of studies have been conducted on the conversion of diesel powered auto rickshaws to electric drive. Of key importance to the design of any hybrid vehicle is the energy management strategy that controls the energy flow between components. This paper reports on a project whose objective is to develop and compare different intelligent control strategies for the optimal performance of a fuel cell hybrid auto rickshaw. At first, a novel fuel cell load following strategy (FCLS) showed better results when compared to a traditional equivalent consumption minimization strategy. FCLS was then benchmarked against a fuzzy control strategy (FCS). It was found that after careful tuning, FCLS and FCS were equivalent. However, tuning the fuzzy logic controller was difficult. Thus, further work is being conducted to find a more systematic way to tune FCS, with the belief that it has potential to produce better results than FCLS.