Adaptive estimation of road slope and vehicle mass of fuel cell vehicle

Abstract The vehicle mass and the real-time road slope are two of the most basic parameters for realizing energy management control. Thus, this study proposes a two-stage estimation method for vehicle mass and road slope under longitudinal moving condition of mini fuel cell vehicle (FCV). In the first stage, the vehicle mass is estimated in a few seconds after the car starts to move. And in the second stage, the real-time road slope is estimated during car driving. Then the two parameters can be used in the later energy management strategies. A mini FCV is used to get the experimental results for the estimation model and the root mean square error (RMSE) and the normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) of the results indicate that the estimation results of the two-stage adaptive method are acceptable. With knowing the two parameters, the FCV controller can adjust the operating conditions of the fuel cell power system in advance to improve the dynamic response and performance of FCV.