FPGA-Based battery management system for real-time monitoring and instantaneous SOC prediction

Abstract

Battery management systems (BMS) are becoming essential for all types of electric vehicles using battery packs. Various factors, such as battery temperature and balance, directly affect the life, safety, and efficiency of batteries used in vehicles. For security and robustness, these factors should be monitored and adjusted instantly. Today, battery management systems are constantly being developed using different production methods and algorithms. In the studies, calculations are made by measuring parameters such as temperature, current, current balance, load status, and health status of the battery cells, and the control of the battery group is provided with these calculations. Instant and continuous measurement and processing of all these data and the creation of a control algorithm according to the calculation result are possible with the use of powerful processors. FPGA is a processor that can provide the speed and functionality required for BMS. In the battery management system, the FPGA is responsible for receiving and processing all signals from the battery cells and producing results. It instantly processes the data from temperature, current, and voltage sensors and applies the control stage required for balancing. In addition, the charge and discharge capacity of the battery is calculated by instantly measuring the state of charge (SOC). SOC is of great importance in the battery management system to ensure the safety of the battery pack. Therefore, the SOC needs to be estimated accurately and in real-time. Thanks to its parallel processing capability, the FPGA can simultaneously read data from the sensors and perform related calculations. In this study, a versatile system design with real-time, high computational speed for BMS was carried out on FPGA. The voltage and current of an experimental battery based on the embedded system were monitored in real time in a simulation environment. Experimental results show that the instantaneous SOC estimation is successful, and the system returns instant results to the incoming sensor data. The use of FPGA as a management unit will provide significant advantages in BMS with its high operating speed, real-time monitoring, low power consumption, and re-programmability.