Autonomie Model Validation with Test Data for 2010 Toyota Prius 2012-01-1040

The Prius - a power-split hybrid electric vehicle from Toyota - has become synonymous with the word “Hybrid.” As of October 2010, two million of these vehicles had been sold worldwide, including one million vehicles purchased in the United States. In 2004, the second generation of the vehicle, the Prius MY04, enhanced the performance of the components with advanced technologies, such as a new magnetic array in the rotors. However, the third generation of the vehicle, the Prius MY10, features a remarkable change of the configuration - an additional reduction gear has been added between the motor and the output of the transmission [1]. In addition, a change in the energy management strategy has been found by analyzing the results of a number of tests performed at Argonne National Laboratory's Advanced Powertrain Research Facility (ARRF). Whereas changes in the configuration, such as the reduction gear, are possibly noticeable, it is not easy to determine the effect of the energy management strategy because the supervisory control algorithm is, generally, not published. Further, it is almost impossible to analyze the algorithm without testing results obtained from a well-designed testing process. On the basis of extensive experience in designing the controllers of power-split hybrid electric vehicles in Autonomie, we could identify the supervisory control algorithm by analyzing the testing results obtained from the APRF. A vehicle model and a control model for the Prius MY10 have been developed to reproduce the real-world behaviors, and the simulation results are compared with the testing results. In the simulation, the developed vehicle model achieves fuel consumption that is close to the testing value, within 5%, and the operation of the engine model was similar to that of the real-world engine.