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Automotive manufacturers continue to move further toward powertrain electrification. There are already many hybrid electric vehicles on the market that are based on a variety of system architectures. Ford Motor Company has investigated a new Dual Drive configuration that promises to overcome some of the attribute deficiencies associated with current architectures. The primary objective of this development project was to demonstrate the fuel economy potential of this system in a vehicle. To accomplish this objective, the team used an internally developed, formal Controls Development Process (CDP) for the control system design and validation. This paper describes the development of the vehicle control system in the context of this process.

A hybrid electric vehicle requires a complex control system to effectively manage vehicle level attributes while maximizing fuel efficiency. The control system interactions necessitate a hierarchical control structure in which one controller, the vehicle system controller, directs the functions of the lower level controllers. This paper outlines a model-based method that allows a controls team to design and validate a vehicle system controller for use in a hybrid electric vehicle.