Design and implementation of hybrid vehicle using control of DC electric motor

The electric motors and its control technology are key components of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). Control of the electric motor is a fundamental issue for traction application in electric vehicles and HEVs. This paper presents the design, development and implementation of a hybrid vehicle using both an electric motor and petrol engine to increase efficiency and decrease carbon footprint. Initially, a prototype of a HEV is designed and the performance values are calculated, before a control system is developed and implemented to control the DC motor speed using a microcontroller as the vehicle’s electronic control unit along with simple proportional integral derivative (PID) control using speed as a feedback mechanism. The prototype made incorporated voltage, current, speed and torque sensors for feedback resulting in a closed loop control system which successfully matched the speed input of a user-controlled pedal sensor. A user interface was developed to show the driver of the vehicle key variables such as the revolutions per minute (RPM) of the motor, the speed of the vehicle along with the current being drawn, and the voltage applied to the motor with overall power. To output a variable voltage from the Arduino, a digital output was used with pulse width modulation (PWM) capabilities in order to provide a variable DC voltage to the speed controller.