ESE 499: Systems Engineering Capstone Design Project
Modern hybrid engine cars often do not take full advantage of the benefits that their engines provide. In modern hybrid vehicles the driver has a binary choice to switch between their electric or gasoline options, and in many cases the vehicle does not make these determinations itself. We have designed a closed-loop control system in MATLAB and Simulink that theoretically could be able to optimize a variety of driving functions. We have moved away from a strictly binary decision by selecting a percentage use of both the gasoline and electric engines simultaneously. The driving modes that we hope to optimize include acceleration, fuel efficiency, and towing capacity; each of these modes respond to changing driving conditions such as incline, acceleration, deceleration, among others to best optimize towards the given objective.
Dennis Mell, WUSTL Electrical and Systems Engineering Professor