ENERGY MANAGEMENT SUBSYSTEM. FINAL REPORT

In today's environment-conscious world, increasing levels of automotive emissions have been recognized as a major source of pollutants and greenhouse gases. Despite increasingly stringent tailpipe emission standards, the increased use of the automobile has more than offset the lowered per-vehicle emissions. Consequently, there is a great deal of interest in so-called zero-emission vehicles, such as electric and hybrid-electric automobiles. Although very attractive in terms of emissions, these vehicles present some design challenges which are not generally part of conventional automotive design. One such challenge is the development of an effective energy management strategy for the vehicle. While a conventional automobile has an engine whose power output far exceeds the average vehicle needs, hybrid electric vehicles generally have very limited energy reserves, and efficiency in the use of these reserves is paramount if acceptable overall performance is to be achieved. Many aspects of the vehicle design strongly influence the overall vehicle efficiency. However, the actual performance achieved by any given driver is strongly dependent on the driver's skills. One way to reduce the effect of differences in driving skills is to provide for automatic accelerator control, permitting the vehicle to be driven in an efficient manner without necessitating extensive driver training. This report describes an accelerator/brake control system developed for use on the Zia Roadrunner, New Mexico Tech's entry in the 1993 Sunrayce for solar-electric hybrid vehicles.

• Corporate Authors:

  Los Alamos National Laboratory

  P.O. Box 1663
  Los Alamos, NM  United States  87545
• Authors:
  • Wightman, C W
• Publication Date: 1997-2

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 21 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Air quality management; Electric automobiles; Energy conservation; Exhaust gases; Hybrid automobiles; Hybrid vehicles
• Uncontrolled Terms: Energy efficiency
• Old TRIS Terms: Energy management; Exhaust emission control
• Subject Areas: Energy; Environment; Highways; Vehicles and Equipment; I95: Vehicle Inspection;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00738645
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: LA-SUB-93-244
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 23 1997 12:00AM