2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

As part of the Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) Curriculum, applied projects for senior students in their final year augments their education and training in research and research methods. It represents the centerpiece of the ECE curriculum's professional component and follows ABET guidelines as provided in its format. Without exception, all applied projects are team efforts. Teams must consist of between three (3) to five (5) members and the selection of a Team-Lead. Modern Lithium Battery systems require the use of a Battery Management System (BMS) to keep batteries in parallel connections, safe. These BMS sense Temperature T, Battery Voltage V, and State of Charge SoC for the user, then balances the cells to an equal voltage. Research and Development were conducted to modify the current standard of centralized BMS into a decentralized wireless D-BMS system to successfully meet industry requirement. In modern Electric Vehicle (EV) automotive applications, a BMS is a critical component in the design of modern battery systems. It usually requires the BMS to monitor Voltage, State of Charge (SOC), Temperature, charge, and discharge rates. Most BMS used today are centralized, which means all connections lead to a single location. This type of BMS has the advantage of being simple, inexpensive, and easy to source. However, with the race to create the most efficient electric vehicles, manufacturers are looking for new types of BMS Instrumentation topology termed ‘Decentralized Battery Management System D-BMS’. These D-BMS cut wiring down by not stringing wires all throughout the battery system, saving weight, complexity, and reducing points of failure. In this project, this was achieved by breaking up the BMS into several separate ‘child-units’ created by Infineon-device monitoring, one module at a time. An ESP-32, a Low-cost, Low-Power system-on-a-chip L-PSoC microcontroller with integrated Wi-Fi and dual-mode Bluetooth, was used to turn the ISO-UART connection to the master board into a Wi-Fi connection. This conversion of connection type is the basis of what is now a wireless D-BMS, and all data was then transferred to a MATLAB script for data to be visualized and analyzed. As an instructional project, the D-BMS system incorporates knowledge of battery management, distributed computing, and wireless communication.