Low-cost modular battery emulator for battery management system testing

This paper discusses the implementation of a custom battery emulator, specifically designed for functional testing of battery management systems at the end of the production line. Particular care has been paid to make the design of the battery emulator modular and low cost. These characteristics are sought in relatively low-volume medium-power battery applications, where the adoption of conventional hardware-in-the-loop solutions is not viable. A prototype of battery emulator has been implemented, validated, and successfully used to test a battery management system for 12 series-connected cells.