HEMIS · Electrical powertrain HEalth Monitoring for Increased Safety of FEVs

To achieve the aims of reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions, Fully Electric Vehicle (FEV) needs to reach significant market shares. However, the advent of FEVs in mass production presents new challenges to automotive manufacturers due to the immaturity of the new building blocks, which can reduce FEV's safety and reliability. Among them, is the electric powertrain: i.e. electric traction motors and power electronics controller.Another factor to be taken into account is electromagnetic interference due to the switching technology of power electronics. Furthermore, power electronics and the circulation of high currents from the battery to the motor will emit additional electromagnetic fields (EMF), including Low Frequency (LF) emissions not covered within the current automotive EMC standards.HEMIS project has two major objectives. The first one is to design a Prognostic Health Monitoring System (PHMS), which will sense key physical characteristics related to the health state of the powertrain and the emitted EMF. Based on this information, the PHMS will be able to provide a failsafe state, enhancing public's confidence on the safety and reliability of FEVs. PHMS will also predict the remaining useful life of the equipment, thus enabling enhanced maintenance and reduction of costs, due to acquired knowledge of failure mechanisms. The result of this multidisciplinary research will be a working prototype.The second objective is to provide the manufactures of FEVs with design guidelines regarding EMC and the impact of EMF (including LF emissions) on human health. The research will also result in EMC/EMF testing guidelines for FEV manufacturers, which are expected to be incorporated as a part of emissions standards. Thus, HEMIS will help to counter fears amongst some sectors of the population about EMF exposure in FEVs.With the proposed approach, HEMIS directly addresses the objective GC-ICT-2011.6.8 ICT for fully electric vehicles g).