Application Study on the Dynamic Programming Algorithm for Energy Management of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles

To explore the problems associated with applying dynamic programming (DP) in the energy management strategies of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), a plug-in hybrid bus powertrain is introduced and its dynamic control model is constructed. The numerical issues, including the discretization resolution of the relevant variables and the boundary issue of their feasible regions, were considered when implementing DP to solve the optimal control problem of PHEVs. The tradeoff between the optimization accuracy when using the DP algorithm and the computational burden was systematically investigated. As a result of overcoming the numerical issues, the DP-based approach has the potential to improve the fuel-savings potential of PHEVs. The results from comparing the DP-based strategy and the traditional control strategy indicate that there is an approximately 20% improvement in fuel economy.