Fuzzy Logic and Passivity-Based controller applied to Electric Vehicle using Fuel Cell and Supercapacitors Hybrid Source

Electric vehicles using Fuel Cell (FC), as a substitute for internal-combustion-engine vehicles, have become a research hotspot for most automobile manufacturers all over the world. Fuel cell systems have disadvantages, such as high cost, slow response and no regenerative energy recovery during braking; hybridization can be a solution to these drawbacks. This paper presents a modelling and control strategies of hybrid DC link which is equipped with a fuel cell system as a main source and a supercapacitor (SC) as an auxiliary power source as well. An energy management strategy based on passivity based control using fuzzy logic estimation, which is employed to control the power source, is described. This fuzzy estimation is capable to determine the desired current of SC according to the SC state of charge (SoC) and the FC remaining hydrogen quantity (QH(2)). Finally, the computer simulation results under Matlab verify the validity of the proposed controller and demonstrate that the proposed controller provides robust dynamic characteristics. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd.