Neural Network Controller to Manage the Power
Flow of a Hybrid Source for Electric Vehicles
Rawad Zgheib
Electrical Engineering Department
ÉTS (École de Technologie Supérieure)
Montreal, Canada
Abstract— This paper proposes a neural network controller for a
DC/DC converter used to manage the power flow of an active
hybrid energy source for Electric Vehicles. The energy source is
composed of a battery, an ultracapacitor and a Dual Active
Bridge DC/DC converter used to optimize the power distribution
between the energy sources involved. The neural network control
method applied to this bidirectional converter has many
advantages: reduction of the computational time, decrease in the
amount of data stored and improvement in the transient
response. This method is simulated in an Electric Vehicle
application using a normalized driving cycle. The simulation
results will show the improvements made by this control method
compared to the conventional PI controller, in terms of
improving the power management, reducing stress on the sources
and increasing robustness due to reference changes.
Keywords—battery; ultracapacitor; dual active bridge; electric
vehicle; energy management; hybrid energy source; neural
network
I. INTRODUCTION
Battery-powered electric vehicles are designed to offer a
driving range suitable for urban use. Current battery
technologies used in Electric Vehicles (EVs) have space
limitations, thus the energy and power offered provide a
driving range much lower than the fuel-powered vehicles.
Current research is focused on increasing the performance
of the energy source in Electric Vehicles (EVs). Hybrid energy
sources are therefore being studied and considered for use. As
seen in Ragone chart in Fig. 1, the Li-Ion technology, which is
Fig. 1. Ragone chart for various energy-storing devices [1]
978-1-4673-7637-2/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE
Kamal Al-Haddad, Senior Member, IEEE
Electrical Engineering Department
ÉTS (École de Technologie Supérieure)
Montreal, Canada
most commonly used in existing EVs, is characterized by a low
peak power. Therefore, the increase in installed power results
in an increase in the size and weight of the battery, which is
hard to accomplish in a transportation system. Coupling the
battery with an energy source that has a high peak power seems
necessary to reduce the battery size and improve the overall
performance of the EV. The most appropriate energy source
appearing in Fig. 1 and having a high peak power is the
ultracapacitor technology. This paper therefore discusses the
combination of a battery and an ultracapacitor for EV
applications.
Research shows that combining these sources together
allows solving key problems electric vehicles are facing
nowadays, such as increase in driving range, better
regeneration of energy while braking and better response to
large power pulses. The configurations into which these two
power sources can be combined are illustrated in Fig. 2. These
combinations will be evaluated, and only one of them will be
simulated.
The next part of our work is the study of a DC/DC
converter suitable for managing the power transfer between the
elements of the energy source and the electrical machine. The
chosen converter is bidirectional in order to maximize the
efficiency of the power transfer. The detailed structure is
studied in the second part of this paper.
The conventional type of DC/DC control, which is based
on PI correctors are designed for a specific and constant
desired load. The performance consequently degrades during
transient time and when the load changes, which is quite
common in an EV. Hence, Neural Network Control is
considered. This type of control adapts well to the change of
loads and is proven to decrease the transient effects [2], [3].
Though, a main downfall of this control is the long
computational time and the necessity to have a large memory
in order to stock the data. The novel neural network control
revealed in this paper will reduce these disadvantages so that
neural networks can be used in vehicle applications.
The whole electric powertrain will be simulated in
Matlab/Simulink, with the neural network control applied to
the Dual Active Bridge (DAB) converter. The advantages of
this method will be revealed through the results of the
simulation, and its comparison with the conventional PI
controller.
 II. COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT CONFIGURATIONS The final topology presented in Fig. 2 (d) contains two
Different combinations of parallel configurations between a DC/DC converters, each one in series with the battery and the
battery and an ultracapacitor are presented in Fig. 2. ultracapacitor. This configuration allows control over the
power flow to and from each energy source. But, considering
The passive configuration is presented in Fig. 2 (a), in the space limitation in the vehicle, this topology has a main
which the battery and the ultracapacitor are directly connected flaw, which is the high number of elements used to control the
in parallel. This disposition presents many disadvantages. source. In addition to that, the losses due to the commutation of
Firstly, the capacitor voltage should be equal to the battery the semiconductors will be doubled due to the use of two
voltage, which results in a difficulty in balancing such a large DC/DC converters.
number of capacitor cells in series and a space limitation in the
vehicle since ultracapacitors tend to occupy a relatively large In conclusion, the topology appearing in Fig. 2 (b) will be
volume. Moreover, the current distribution between these two considered for evaluation and simulation in an EV application
sources is determined by the difference in the internal due to its advantages and ease of implementation in a vehicle
resistance of each element [4], which results in an inefficient application.
power distribution. Finally, transient peaks tend to appear in
the power delivered by the battery [5]. These instantaneous III. STRUCTURE OF THE DC/DC CONVERTER
peaks have the ability to dramatically decrease the lifespan of Choosing the most suitable structure of the DC/DC converter
the battery. Because of these downfalls, the passive in series with the ultracapacitor is an important step in
configuration would not be considered for applications in EVs. simulating the hybrid energy source. The ultracapacitor used
Fig. 2 (b)-(d) present solutions to the problems of the for this application has a nominal voltage of 75V [8]. This
passive configuration. These controlled combinations use a element is chosen because of its reasonable dimensions that
DC/DC converter in series with one source (Fig. 2 (b) & (c)) or are suitable for a vehicle application.
with both sources (Fig. 2 (d)). This paper considers the three Because of the high voltage difference between the
configurations mentioned above and compares their ultracapacitor and the load (composed of the inverter and the
performance. electrical machine), an isolated converter should be used. This
isolated converter has to be bidirectional in order to allow the
In Fig. 2 (b), the DC/DC converter allows proper power
ultracapacitors to provide peak power when needed and to
management between the battery and the ultracapacitor and
store excess power during braking and deceleration.
ensures that the ultracapacitor voltage is properly controlled.
This configuration is suitable for high voltage batteries and low The electrical circuit of the Dual Active Bridge is presented
voltage ultracapacitors [6]. Therefore it is considered to be the in Fig. 3. Vin represents the ultracapacitor voltage and VO the
most appropriate combination to be implemented, since the output of the DC/DC converter connected to the DC/AC
batteries used in current EVs have a relatively high voltage (a converter.
345V Li/Ion Battery is used in a Nissan Leaf [7]). Therefore,
an implementation of an ultracapacitor would not introduce The Dual Active Bridge (DAB) is the most suitable
many modifications to the existing EV components. converter for this type of application, due to the use of a
transformer that ensures the isolation between the different
Fig. 2 (c) shows the battery in series with the DC/DC voltage levels and the bidirectional flow of power through its
converter. The ultracapacitor in this topology is directly components.
connected in parallel with the DC link of the DC/AC converter
[6], which decreases the voltage variation of the ultracapacitor IV. CONTROL OF THE DC/DC CONVERTER
due to the limitation of the DC link voltage range. This will
increase the battery current since the capacitor isn’t able to The basic control configuration of the converter is
provide (or receive) the sufficient amount of power during presented in Fig. 4. The digital Control Circuit uses the input
acceleration (or regenerative braking). This limitation stands voltage (Vin), the output voltage (VO) and current (IO) to
against the main use of ultracapacitors in EVs, which is the control the converter connected to the battery or the
ability to respond to power pulses due to their high power ultracapacitor. This block uses either the conventional PI
density. controller or the neural network control, and sends the
information to the Drive Circuit, which generates the signals
DC (Si and Qi) used to command the semiconductors [9].
DC
Ultracapacitor

DC
Ultracap

DC Electrical
Battery

Electrical
Machine
AC Machine AC Iin IO
S1 S3
Battery

Q1 Q3
(a) (c)

IL
a c
DC Vin Cin CO VO
DC DC DC
Battery

DC Electrical DC b d
DC Electrical
AC Machine DC Machine S4 Q2 Q4
AC S2
Ultracap

Ultracap
Battery

(b)
(d)

Fig. 2. Parallel combinations of a battery and an ultracapacitor

Fig. 3. Dual Active Bridge Topology
 DAB

Digital Si Qi
Drive
Control
Circuit
Circuit Converter

D1 D2 D3
Si Qi

DC VO Neural
Vin Network
Controller
DC IO
Fig. 4. Basic Control Configuration of the DC/DC converter

In addition to the advantages mentioned in the previous Vin VO IO

section, the main advantage of this structure is the control that

allows its operation with a duty cycle of 50% in the two full
bridges, instead of a low duty cycle in case of a conventional
DC/DC converter due to the high voltage difference [10]. The
output voltage will be achieved through the application a
phase shift φ between the control systems of the two bridges,
as seen in Fig. 5.
Ts
S1, S4 t
Fig. 6. Neural Network Controller for the Dual Active Bridge
In order to design the suitable PI controller, the DAB is
studied under a steady-state condition [12], and the states of
the semiconductors are defined and used to determine the
different equations that describe the operation of the
converter.
These equations contribute to the establishment of the
transfer function relating the inputs of the DAB to its outputs,
which will contribute to the design of the PI controller.

B. Neural Network (NN) Control

S2, S3 t
The Neural Network used for the DAB has one output,
φ
which is φ, the phase shift between the control signals of the
Q1, Q4 t two bridges [12].
The control of this parameter allows the establishment of
the different waveforms which dictate the operation of the
Q2, Q3 t DAB. The controller has to generate optimal values of φ in
order to reduce the reactive power consumption and control
the power flow between the battery and the ultracapacitor.
Vab t
The controller used in this application is a feedforward
back propagation network, consisting of one hidden layer, one
Vcd t input layer and one output layer, as shown in Fig. 6 [13].
The input layer is composed of three parameters, the input
voltage, the output voltage and the active power. The output
IL t layer delivers the signal φ to a converter that defines the state
of every switch. The network training uses the predictive
Fig. 5. Control signals and results of the DAB converter [11]
controller as an optimization algorithm, in order to set the
The required electrical machine power is used as a weights and biases of the network over the whole active power
reference to control the DAB and thus specify the required scale. These optimal values will be used in real-time to reduce
power of the ultracapacitor and the battery. In fact, since the the reactive power.
specific battery power is way lower than that of the In order to ensure an acceptable result, the neural network
ultracapacitor, the power reference of the battery will be the is trained by using an average DAB model. The training is
output of a slew rate applied to the required total power. Thus, applied once and covers the whole spectrum of power values
the battery will be required to provide a power that changes required [14].
according to a low rate, and the power reference for the
ultracapacitor will be the difference between the total power V. ELECTRIC POWERTRAIN MODEL
and the battery power reference. Once the hybrid power source containing the two energy
Now that the references are set, the DAB control will be sources, the converter(s) and the control system is studied, the
executed using the conventional controller (PI controller) and rest of the electric powertrain needs to be modeled.
the neural network controller which will be explained below. The complete vehicle model is presented in Fig. 7. This
A. Conventional PI control section discusses the study and simulation of the auxiliaries,
the AC-DC converter, the electrical machine and the
The first method used to control the DC/DC converter in transmission system of the vehicle.
the hybrid energy source is the PI control.
A. Auxiliaries • ρair: air density at 20°C (ρair =1.2041 kg/m3)
The main objective of the source is to provide power to the • SCx=0.72
wheels. However, a modern vehicle has additional loads.
These charges are related to the security of the driver (lights, As for the transmission, the total torque of the vehicle is
horn, wipers ...) and/or his comfort (radio, air conditioning ...).
computed as follows:
These loads are not constant; they depend on several external
data, such as the use of air conditioning depending on the Ct=ft rr (2)
outside temperature. With ft the traction force (N) and rr the wheel radius (m)
In order to simplify the simulation, we assume that the For each rear wheel:
consumption of the auxiliaries is constant and equal to Cr = Ct/2 (3)
Paux=857 W [15], as explained in Table I: ωr= vveh/rr (4)
TABLE I. AVERAGE CONSUMPTION OF THE AUXILIARIES IN A VEHICLE
Cr and ωr are the torque and the angular speed of each
wheel respectively.
Auxiliary Consumption
Considering the transmission efficiency, the motor torque
Radio 52 W
and speed can be calculated from the wheel torque and speed
Air Conditioning 489 W [16].
Lighting 316 W

Total 857 W D. Driving cycle

The chosen driving cycle is the urban Artemis cycle, in
The robustness of the two types of control will be tested by which the evolution of the vehicle speed in time is presented
varying the value of power consumed by the auxiliaries. in Fig 8.
The data presented will be used as input to the vehicle
B. AC/DC Converter and electrical machine model in order to generate the torque and the power required
The electrical machine chosen for this paper is the
Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine (PMSM). The
AC/DC converter and the machine are controlled using the p-q
model of the PMSM and by controlling the currents and the
torque of the machine.
C. Vehicle model and tranmission system
The vehicle’s traction force is represented by the following
equation:
dvveh
ft = Mveh + Mveh g sin(α) + sign(vveh )Mveh g cos(α)crr
dt (1)
+0.5sign(vveh + vair ) + ρair SCx (vveh + vair )2

Where:
Fig. 8. Urban Artemis Cycle and required parameters for the
• vveh: Vehicle speed (m/s) electrical machine
• α: Slope of the road (rad) by the electrical machine of the vehicle, as seen in Fig. 8.
2
• g : Gravitational acceleration (g= 9.81 m/s )
• Mveh: Vehicle mass (kg) Fig. 8 shows that the duration of the Artemis cycle is 919s,
and since the purpose of this study is to show the difference
• crr=0.01(1+0.036vveh): Coefficient resistance of the between two types of control for the DC/DC converter, two
rolling wheels simplified power references are constructed by taking the
maximum power reference and the maximum power changing
Wheel Wheel rate required from the Artemis cycle. The simplified
references shown in Fig. 9 will clearly show the difference in
performances between the two types of control.
Hybrid DC
Electrical
Energy Machine Transmission
Source AC

DC
Auxiliaries
DC

Wheel Wheel

Fig. 7. Electric Vehicle model

 Fig. 9. Simplified power references
VI. SIMULATION RESULTS
The results of the simulation conducted using
Matlab/Simulink/Stateflow will show the evolution of the
battery and ultracapacitor power using the two types of control
mentioned previously.
When the first reference is applied, the total power, the
battery power and the ultracapacitor power are shown in Fig.
10 and 11 for the two types of control.
Fig. 10 shows the power evolution when the conventional
PI control is applied. An overshoot that reaches 145 kW
appears on the required electrical machine power, and since
the ultracapacitor always tries to follow the reference since it
is the fastest to react, it will try to provide the same amount of
power, which will probably cause damage to the different
elements in the system. This problem is clearly avoided when
we used the neural network to control the DC/DC converter in
series with the ultracapacitor (Fig. 11). Since the neural
network is already trained using different values of power
references, this control tries to minimize the overshoot and the
static error in order to allow the battery to provide the base
power and to recharge the ultracapacitor since it doesn’t have
a high specific energy value, and the ultracapacitor to provide
the energy peaks so that the battery can last longer and can
provide a greater driving range.
Fig. 10. Power evolution using PI control for the first reference
Fig. 11. Power evolution using NN control for the first reference
The second reference which constitutes a power rise from
0 to approximatively 20 kW in less than 0.05 s is next applied
to the hybrid energy source. The PI control shown in Fig. 12 is
clearly unable to let the ultracapacitor power follow its
reference due to the high rise rate of the required total power.
The battery power presents a high rate of oscillations and the
ultracapacitor power is unable to follow its reference in an
acceptable time, all the while introducing a huge static error.
This simulation exploits the huge disadvantage of the PI
control, which is its inability to adapt to reference changes
without changing the PI parameters. This problem is easily
solved by replacing the PI control by the Neural Network
control, as seen in Fig. 13. During the rise of the required
power, the ultracapacitor reaches its physical limits and is
unable to provide the required power during such a short time,
but the neural network control will quickly allow the available
power to reach its required value over a minimum time while
respecting the physical limits of the elements.
Fig. 12. Power evolution using PI control for the second reference
A final simulation concerns the auxiliaries’ power. During
all the previous simulations, we supposed that the
consumption of the auxiliaries doesn’t change and is equal to
857 W. The purpose of this simulation is to vary this
parameter and test the two types of control. Fig. 14 and 15
show the performance of the hybrid energy source using the PI
and the NN control while the auxiliaries’ consumption varies

Fig. 13. Power evolution using NN control for the second reference
from 570 to 1200 W in a random way. Due to this reference
change, the PI control is unable to keep up with the power
reference as shown in Fig. 14, and thus results in an error
between the available power and the required power. The NN
control (Fig. 15) solves this problem once again and allows
the hybrid source to provide the required power with a
minimum error.
VII. CONCLUSION
This paper proposes a novel control method for the DC/DC
converter used in a hybrid energy source composed of a Li-Ion
battery and an ultracapacitor for electric vehicles. This source
provides energy and power to an electric vehicle. The control
consists of a neural network with the purpose of reducing
transient effects and ameliorating power flow between the two
Fig. 14. Total power evolution using PI control for a variable
auxiliaries’ consumption
Fig. 15. Total power evolution using NN control for a variable
auxiliaries’ consumption
energy sources. This control proved through multiple
simulations that it allows an optimal power flow between the
battery and the ultracapacitor no matter how much the
required power changes over a short amount of time, and with
a variable auxiliaries’ consumption. The performance of the
neural network is compared to the conventional PI control and
the results show that the main disadvantage of the PI
controller, which is its inability to adapt to the changes of the
reference, disappears in the case of the Neural Network
controller.
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