Fuzzy logic energy management system of series hybrid electric
vehicle
S. H. Mahyiddin, M. R. Mohamed, Z. Mustaffa, A. C. Khor, M. H. Sulaiman, H. Ahmad,
S. Abdul Rahman
Sustainable Energy & Power Electronics Research Group, Faculty of Electrical & Electronics Engineering
Universiti Malaysia Pahang, 26600 Pekan, Pahang
Corresponding Author: rusllim@ump.edu.my
Keywords: Series HEV, energy management system, fuzzy
logic control.
Abstract
Power flow control mechanism of multiple power sources
within series hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) is very vital to
boost the vehicle performance. However, it is very difficult to
acquire the suitable method in controlling the power flow due
to the nonlinear system nature of power sources in series
HEV. In this research, fuzzy logic control (FLC) is designed
for discharge and charge of the batteries using three different
shape and distribution of membership function (MF).
Membership function shape and distribution slightly affect
the performance of power flow between coupled internal
combustion engine (ICE) with generator and batteries. Based
on simulation, the Triangular MF is decided for the system
since it can compensate the power flow performance and
lower the fuel consumption. The simulation results show the
effectiveness of fuzzy logic control in distributing power flow
between ICE-generator and batteries to drive the electric
motor.
1 Introduction
Increasing environmental awareness and concern of depleting
fossil fuel in near future motivate research towards alternative
energy sources. The global usage of crude oil is 4 billion tons
per year and if the trend remains the same, oil deposits will be
disappeared by the year 2052 [1]. To avoid this crisis, many
researches have been done to uncover alternative sources for
transportation including research in electric vehicle and
hybrid electric vehicle. However, electric vehicle not
compatible with recent time compared to hybrid electric
vehicle due to shortcoming of energy storage system
performance [2]. The concept of hybrid electric vehicles
involves the combination of multiple energy sources to the
powertrain that complement each other. Hybrid electric
vehicle has the capability to reduce fuel consumption and
simultaneously reduce the air pollution.
Generally, there are four types of HEV powertrain
architecture which are series HEV, parallel HEV, series-
parallel HEV and complex HEV where different hybrid
architecture presented different configuration, driveway and
operation system [3]. The main challenge in HEV is to
develop the energy management strategies of these multiple
sources. Several strategies proposed including two main
categories which are rule based and optimization based [4].
The rule based method is the most applicable and adaptable to
resolve variety of problem and one of the examples is fuzzy
logic control. Fuzzy logic control is based on intuitive control
approach and capable to translate human knowledge and
experience into corresponding results. This makes fuzzy logic
control suitable for complex systems and provides an
effective control which can be used in real time application
[5].
The main objective of this research is to design the energy
management strategies using fuzzy logic control that capable
to distribute power flow between ICE-generator and batteries
in order to drive the electric motor. The energy management
strategies were designed using fuzzy logic toolbox within
MATLAB while the vehicle was modeled in SIMULINK.
This paper is organised as follows. Section 2 describes the
series HEV system structure. Section 3 provides the
explanation of energy management strategies using FLC.
Then section 4 describes the detail of the result and
discussion. Lastly section 5 concludes the research and some
scope for future works is included.
2 Series HEV System Structure
Figure 1. Typical series HEV configuration
Figure 1 shows the typical series HEV configuration uses in
this research where it consists of ICE, generator, batteries,
motor, and power converters. Series HEV use the ICE
coupled with generator to supply electricity which needed to
propel the vehicle. The converted electricity can either charge
the batteries or directly drive the wheels through electric
motor and the transmission, hence bypassing the batteries [6].
In this configuration, the ICE has no mechanical connection
with the electric motor therefore the ICE can be controlled
flexibly for the best fuel consumption and lower the emission
[7]. The batteries changes between two operation states which
are discharge state and charge state based on the control
strategy.
According to series HEV configuration and operating modes
of each component, the main driving modes of series HEV
can be divided as follows:
1) Electric mode – In this period, ICE is turned off and
batteries become main power source to drive electric motor.
2) ICE mode – In this period, ICE-generator power becomes
main power source to drive electric motor.
3) Hybrid mode – In this period, both ICE-generator and
batteries become power sources to drive electric motor.
4) Regenerative braking – Electric motor operates as
generator to supply electricity for batteries charging.
Therefore the power flow model for vehicle can be expressed
as equation below:
ܲ݉‫ ݁ܿ݅ܲ = ݐ݋‬െ݃ + ܾܲܽ‫ݐݐ‬
ܲ݉‫ ݐ݋‬, ܲ݅ܿ݁ െ݃ and ܾܲܽ‫ ݐݐ‬are power required to drive electric
motor, ICE-generator power and batteries power respectively.
ܲ݉‫ ݐ݋‬is negative during braking since motor operates as
generator to generates power in this mode.
3 Energy Management System Strategies
In this research, energy management design strategies is
assumed that the ICE-generator unit functions in the high
efficiency region and it can be simply controlled to turn on or
off based on electric motor system required power [8].Table 1
shows control strategies implemented in this research.
# Motor required power condition Drive power
Only ICE-generator
1 ܲ݅ܿ݁ െ݃ሺ‹ ሻ ൑ ܲ݉‫ ݐ݋‬൑ ܲ݅ܿ݁ െ݃ሺƒš ሻ unit supplies power
to electric motor.
Both ICE-generator
and batteries unit
2 ܲ݉‫ ݐ݋‬൐ ܲ݅ܿ݁ െ݃ሺƒš ሻ supply power to
electric motor.
Only batteries unit
3 ܲ݉‫ ݐ݋‬൏ ܲ݅ܿ݁ െ݃ሺ‹ ሻ supplies power to
electric motor.
Batteries is in
4 െܲ݉‫ ݐ݋‬ൌ ܾܲܽ‫ݐݐ‬ charging state
Table 1. Control strategies implemented
According to Table 1, positivity or negativity of electric
motor required power determined the batteries operating
states either in discharging or charging states. Therefore,
control strategies for each state are different. To deal with
this, two separate FLC are needed due to different rules in
discharge and charge states.
If the motor required power is greater than zero, batteries in
discharge state. If motor required power is greater than
ܲ݅ܿ݁ െ݃ሺƒš ሻ the electric motor power should be provided by
ICE-generator and the remaining peak period should be added
by batteries. If motor required power is less than
ܲ݅ܿ݁ െ݃ሺ‹ ሻ the electric motor power should be provided by
batteries. If motor required power is between ICE-generator
power regions, the electric motor power should be provided
by ICE-generator. When the motor required power is less than
zero, batteries in charge state. In this state, all power
generated used to charge the batteries.
The key control strategy is to effectively manage the power
distribution between ICE-generator and battery power source
based on maintaining state of charge (SOC) in a reasonable
range simultaneously producing low fuel consumption and
emission [9]. To achieve this control strategy fuzzy logic
control was employed due to its simple, robust and able to
deal with nonlinear structure of power distribution problem
[10]. However, according to Xudong Liu et al. [11]
membership function shape, amplitude and characteristic of
the distribution affect the control performance of fuzzy logic
control. Therefore, this research developed fuzzy logic
controls using different membership function shape.
(1)
3.1 Fuzzy Logic Control Design
Fuzzy logic control generally consists of four main
conceptual blocks which are fuzzifier, defuzzifier, fuzzy
inference system and fuzzy rule based [12] as shown in
Figure 2. In this research, multiple input single output
(MISO) fuzzy logic control was used. The inputs were SOC
level and motor required power whereas the output was
batteries power in term of discharge power and charge power.
For fuzzy inference system, Mamdani method was chose due
to well suited to human input and very intuitive.
Fuzzy Inference Battery
SOC
System (FIS) power
Vehicle Fuzzifier Defuzzifier
Motor req.
mode
power Rule Based
ICE mode
Hybrid Figure 2. Fuzzy logic controller scheme
mode
The energy management for series HEV using FLC was
Electric developed using SIMULINK environment. The FLC was
mode divided into discharge FLC and charge FLC. The developed
Regenerati model was shown in Figure 3.
ve braking
mode
Figure 3. Batteries power controller using FLC
 Table 2. Discharge fuzzy logic controller using different membership function.
Discharge fuzzy logic control input and output variable were model in SIMULINK which was series-parallel HEV was
defined as follows: first input SOC consists of three modified to series HEV by removing the connection of motor
membership function namely low (L), medium (M) and high and ICE as reported in C. C. Chan et al. [6]. Then the battery
(H) while second input motor required power also consists of power controller was replaced by fuzzy logic control model
three membership function namely small (S), medium (M), established in Figure 3. Therefore, the entire simulation
and high (H). The output variable, batteries power consists of model of series HEV with new energy management system
five membership function namely zero (Z), very small (VS), strategy was established in MATLAB/SIMULINK as shown
small (S), medium (M) and high (H). To study the effect of in Figure 4.
shape and distribution of membership function, three different
In this simulation, human experience was employed to the
type of membership function were studied as shown in Table
vehicle pedal signal to produce vehicle acceleration and
2.
simultaneously calculate motor required power to drive the
The constructed fuzzy rules matrix is based on the knowledge vehicle. Vehicle pedal signal and motor required power was
and intuition of hybrid electric vehicle control as presented in shown in Figure 5 and 6 respectively.
Table 3. This rule poses 9 batteries output power which
includes all input combination.
ܲ݉‫ݐ݋‬
ܾܲܽ‫ݐݐ‬
S M H
S S Z VS
SOC M M Z H
H M Z H
Table 3. Rule based of fuzzy logic control
Figure 5. Pedal signal
Design of charge fuzzy control follows the same method as
discharge fuzzy control but the difference is input variable
which was motor required power and output variable batteries
power becomes negative since motor operates as generator
and generates electricity to charge the batteries.

4 Simulation Results
Forward simulation model was established using
MATLAB/SIMULINK environment to verify the effect of
different shape and distribution of membership function in Figure 6. Calculated motor required drive power
fuzzy logic control as discussed in chapter 3. The original
 Figure 4. Series HEV Simulation Model

Vehicle system performance shows different outcome when

different type of membership function was employed to the
fuzzy logic control as shown in Figure 7, 8 and 9. The motor
required power to drive the vehicle was distributed between
ICE-generator and batteries unit follows the energy
management strategy discussed in chapter 3.

Figure 8. Vehicle performance using Trapezoidal MF

Figure 7. Vehicle performance using Gaussian MF

 5 Conclusions
In this research, the design of energy management system
strategies is conducted using fuzzy logic control with
different shape of membership function as shown in Table 2.
The FLC can effectively distribute the power flow between
ICE-generator and batteries to drive the electric motor.
Membership function shape and distribution slightly affect
the performance of power flow between ICE-generator and
batteries. In this simulation, the Triangular MF is decided for
the system since it can compensate the power flow
performance and lower fuel consumption.
Further research will consider the optimization of input and
output of fuzzy logic control membership function using the
suitable algorithm. Instead of designing the membership
function based on intuitive method and experience the MF
will be designed according to mathematical model to further
reduce the average fuel consumption.

Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support
from Research and Innovation department of University
Malaysia Pahang. This research is funded under university
research grant RDU160388.

References
[1] https://www.ecotricity.co.uk/our-green-
Figure 9. Vehicle performance using Triangular MF energy/energy-independence/the-end-of-fossil-fuels,
accessed June 2016
The simulation result shows that the energy management [2] Mohd R. Mohamed, Suleiman M. Sharkh, and F. C.
strategy using FLC is effective to deal with nonlinear motor Walsh, "Redox flow batteries for hybrid electric
required power and distributes the power between ICE- vehicles: Progress and challenges," in IEEE Vehicle
generator and batteries to drive the electric motor. However, Power and Propulsion Conference, Sept. 2009, pp.
the type of membership function slightly affects the 551-557.
performance of energy management strategy. Trapezoidal MF [3] A. C. Khor and M. R. Mohamed, "Energy
and Triangular MF shows better power distribution between management system for series hybrid electric
ICE-generator and batteries compared to Gaussian MF. There vehicle," in 2nd International Conference on
is significant power fluctuation occurred to the ICE-generator Electrical, Control and Computer Engineering, Aug.
and batteries power when using Gaussian MF. 2013, pp. 1-4.
[4] Kamil Cagatay Bayindir, Mehmet Ali Gozukucuk,
Type of Average fuel and A. Teke, "A comprehensive overview of hybrid
Reduction
membership consumption electric vehicle: powertrain configurations,
percentage
function (L/100km) powertrain control techniques and electronic control
Gaussian 9.616 - units," Energy Conversion and Management, vol. 52,
Trapezoidal 8.623 10.33 % pp. 1305-1313, 2011.
Triangular 8.599 10.58 % [5] Daniela Chrenko, Shiyu Gan, Christian Gutenkunst,
Reiner Kriesten, and L. L. Moyne, "Novel
Table 4. Average fuel consumption for different type of MF classification of control strategies for hybrid electric
vehicles," in Vehicle Power and Propulsion
Table 4 compares the average fuel consumption using Conference, Oct. 2015, pp. 1-6.
different type of membership function. Triangular MF shows [6] C. C. Chan, Alain Bouscayrol, and K. Chen,
best average fuel consumption for the system compared to "Electric, hybrid, and fuel-cell vehicles: architectures
Trapezoidal MF and Gaussian MF. and modeling," Transactions on Vehicular
Technology, vol. 59, pp. 589-598, 2010.
[7] M. F. M. Sabri, K. A. Danapalasingam, and M. F.
Rahmat, "A review on hybrid electric vehicles
 architecture and energy management strategies,"
Renewable Sustainable Energy Review, vol. 53, pp.
1433-1442, 2016.
[8] Yingming Lv, Haiwen Yuan, Yingyi Liu, and Q.
Wang, "Fuzzy logic based energy management
strategy of battery-ultracapacitor composite power
supply for HEV," in International Conference on
Pervasive Computing, Signal Processing and
Applications, Sept. 2010, pp. 1209-1214.
[9] Niels J. Schouten, Mutasim A. Salman, and N. A.
Kheir, "Energy management strategies for parallel
hybrid vehicles using fuzzy logic," Control
Engineering Practice, vol. 11, pp. 171-177, 2003.
[10] Gheorghe Livint and A.-G. Stan, "Control strategies
for hybrid electric vehicles with two energy sources
on board," in International Conference and
Exposition on Electrical and Power Engineering,
Iasi, Romania, Oct. 2014, pp. 142-147.
[11] Xudong Liu, Qingwu Fan, Kun Zheng, Jianmin
Duan, and Y. Wang, "Constant SOC Control of a
Series Hybrid Electric Vehicle with Long Driving
Range," in International Conference on Information
and Automation, Harbin, China, June 2010, pp.
1603-1608.
[12] Zhang Danhong, Zhou Yan, Liu Kai-pei, and C.
Qing-quan, "A study on fuzzy control of energy
management system in hybrid electric vehicle," in
Asia-Pacific Power and Energy Engineering
Conference, Wuhan, China, Mar. 2009, pp. 1-4.