Design and Implementation of a Model-in-the-Loop Simulator for Verification of the Vehicle Control Software in a Series Hybrid Electric Bus

Due to the complexity in the control system of hybrid vehicles, the electronic control units should go through extensive testing before getting installed in a prototype vehicle. In the first stages of the development process, Hardware-in-the-Loop (HiL) simulation can not be performed because the hardware components of the vehicle are not yet available. In this case, Model-in-the-loop (MiL) simulation is used which couples the designed control software with an environment simulation with no need for a special hardware. In this paper, the MiL simulation is introduced for verification of the vehicle control software in a series hybrid electric bus. To do so, considering the dynamic behavior of various components of the vehicle, a simulator of the hybrid bus is designed by going through with the input/outputs of the vehicle control software. Using the designed test bench, the user can act as a real driver and experience different driving regimes and analyze the control software commands. In the designed simulator, all subsystems are simulated separately in LabVIEW environment and real-time simulation is achieved with an acceptable error. Therefore, it can be used in a HiL test bench for testing each of the vehicle components. The designed simulation model has been validated using real test results. Using that, results show that all control functions in the vehicle control software can be tested and verified with no cost and in the shortest possible time.