LETSCOPE: Lifecycle Extensions Through Software-Defined Predictive Control of Power Electronics

In the era of electric vehicles, the reliability of power electronics has become a crucial part as the industry evolves. Changes in electrical parameters caused by aging and degradation can lead to performance deterioration and eventually the total failure (end-of-life) of power electronic components, whereas the lifetime of power transistors depends to a large extent on the temperature fluctuations. Therefore, it is desired to extend the lifetime by minimizing the temperature swings without affecting the vehicle dynamics. In this paper, we propose the LETSCOPE (Lifecycle Extensions through Software-Defined Predictive Control of Power Electronics) framework for the lifetime extension with a neural-network-based intelligent management system. The driving behavior in the near future is estimated based on information fusion, which enables the predictive optimization of the temperature fluctuations. Besides, to perform real-time on-board management, an integrated SoC with hardware accelerator is developed for an efficient execution under resource constraints. Proof-of-concept experiments on a benchmark route show that the LETSCOPE framework can improve the expected lifetime of power electronics by up to 87% without vehicle dynamics degradation. Moreover, the monitoring of critical parameters provides an early warning of total failure, which contributes to the overall system reliability.