Implementation of a wireless battery management system (WBMS)

This paper introduces a wireless battery management system (BMS) based on Bluetooth technology. With the burgeoning use of battery packs in electric and hybrid vehicles, battery management has become a significant area for improvement. Typical battery packs consist of many individual battery cells, and total-pack performance can only be optimized by ensuring level charge and discharge performance across all individual constituent cells. Current battery pack technology relies on wired sensor connections to all individual cells to track temperature and voltage of each cell, and adjust charge and discharge rates accordingly. Packs with large numbers of individual cells typically have thousands of wire terminations that are susceptible to mechanical failure. This can lead to premature pack failure. Moreover, when an individual battery cell fails under this scenario, and entire pack rebuild is required. The proposed wireless battery management minimizes the failure points in a battery pack. Furthermore, it makes individual components more readily replaced without an entire rebuild, while also eliminating the impact of system modifications on bulky wiring harnesses. The implemented system performed similarly to a wired system in comparison tests, while saving weight and significantly reducing failure points.