Comfort-Oriented Energy Management for an e-Bike in Series Configuration With Experimental Validation

Given the intrinsic hybrid nature of electric bikes (e-bikes), they call for energy management strategies (EMSs), to optimize the energy and power flows in the vehicle. The additional challenge in e-bikes, compared to traditional hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), is having a human power source. Specifically, human power cannot be directly controlled and his/her energy consumption cannot be easily measured or estimated. In this work, we address the energy management for a series-parallel bike, focusing in particular on the series architecture. In detail, we propose a comfort-oriented EMS able to indirectly control the human power to make the cyclist ride close to his/her preferred operating point. Toward this aim, the equivalent consumption minimization strategy (ECMS) is properly extended, to deal with this unique scenario. The solution is implemented on the vehicle control unit (VCU); therefore, the effectiveness of the ECMS-based energy management is proven through an experimental validation when the rider is present in the loop. Results show how the cyclist's operating point is indirectly affected by the behavior of the proposed EMS keeping it close to the preferred operating point.