Switched control for power management in hybrid propulsion schemes

This paper proposes an improved operation strategy for hybrid propulsion systems based on a switched control scheme. The goal is to investigate the role of switching criterion on fuel economy, based on a switched description of a fuel cell (FC) - batteries (B) propulsion scheme. Stability conditions of the closed-loop system are derived. A 1KW propulsion system is taken as a benchmark to illustrate the features of the proposed controller. The results show that by defining switching surfaces conveniently, similar results to those involving optimization can be obtained; simplifying in this way, the fuel economy problem to the election of off-line switching criterion parameters.