A Rule-Based Strategy for a Series/Parallel Hybrid Electric Vehicle: An Approach Based on Dynamic Programming

Dynamic programming (DP) provides the optimal global solution to the energy management problem for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), but needs complete a-priori knowledge of the driving cycle and has high computational requirements. This article presents a possible methodology to extract rules from the dynamic programming solution to design an implementable rule-based strategy. The case study considered is a series/parallel HEV, in which a clutch allows to switch from one configuration to another. The strategy works according to a two layer policy: the supervisory controller, which decides the powertrain configuration (either series or parallel), and the energy management, which decides the power split. The process of deriving the rules from the optimal solution is described. Then, the performance of the resulting rule-based strategy is studied and compared with the solution given by the dynamic programming, which functions as a benchmark.