Hardware-in-the-loop simulation for verification of the drive motor management software in a series hybrid electric bus

Hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) simulation is known as a reliable approach for testing and verification of the control system of hybrid vehicles. In this paper, a low-cost functional HiL test bench is utilised to test and verify the drive motor management software (DMMS) in a series hybrid electric bus. The HiL simulator in the current research is a laptop computer where the real-time simulation model of the virtual parts runs on it and the communication with the real hardware is made through high speed CAN. The simulation model is comprised of three subsystems: energy storage system (ESS), traction system (TS) and vehicle which are designed in LabVIEW environment. The simulation results demonstrate the ability of the designed HiL platform to test and verify the DMMS. Using the designed test bench, all control logics of the DMMS can be evaluated and this will reduce the development costs and time immensely.