Overview
The project 'COSIVU' aims at new system architectures for drive-train by developing a smart, compact and durable single-wheel drive unit with integrated electric motor, compact transmission, full SiC power electronics (switches and diodes), a novel control and health monitoring module with wireless communication, and an advanced ultra-compact cooling solution.
The advances over the current state of the art can be summarized as follows:
- 20% higher energy efficiency and thus extended driving range due to dramatic reductions in the vehicle weight (30%) and in the losses in the power module (50%-70%)
- Increased performance, flexibility as well as safety and reliability due to close hardware-in-the-loop control based on integrated sensors, novel analysis algorithms coded into the microcontroller within the smart drive allowing in-situ functional and health monitoring and the bi-directional wireless communication between each drive and a central computer
- Reduced cost-of-ownership for the end-user due to prognostic maintenance advise, factor 2 increase in lifetime and uptime of the smart drive unit, and minimized usage of expensive mechanical parts and cabling.
Within this project, these ambitious goals will primarily be demonstrated for commercial electric vehicles, which are even more demanding with respect to power performance, durability, and availability than other types of vehicles. In addition, the new architecture will be adapted to other vehicle platform such as vans, pick-up and even passenger cars. Specific and concrete examples will be given. Therefore, the feasibility of the novel drive-train architecture will be shown and demonstrated in a quite general way.