| Abstract | A shift in global energy prices contributed to an increased number of electric vehicles on the roads today, especially in urban environments. Monitoring remaining energy in an electric vehicle proves to be more challenging than determining the remaining fuel in a conventional vehicle. In addition, the range of many contemporary electric vehicles is below that of many conventional vehicles and the time required to "refuel" an electric vehicle is typically on the order of several hours rather than the several minutes taken to refuel a conventional vehicle. The difficulty in determining remaining operating range coupled with the necessity of knowing how much further the vehicle can drive requires a system known as a battery monitoring system. This paper outlines the process in creating a battery monitoring system for the Texas Christian University Engineering Department Electric Vehicle. The system uses several circuits to measure the voltage across each battery and aggregates the data for later analysis using an Arduino microcontroller. This data can then be imported into MATLAB or another similar programming environment to study battery usage patterns and monitor battery state-of-health. The system outlined is designed to allow for future improvements, including real-time in-vehicle monitoring of battery charge and other vehicle performance metrics. Overall, this system will improve the TCU Engineering EV project by allowing future students to study different usage patterns and even battery types. |
