What you’ll learn in this article:
- Wireless battery management systems (wBMS) reduce mechanical complications and associated expenses associated with conventional wiring harness systems.
- wBMS are lighter and more compact than harnessed batteries.
- wBMS maximize energy use per cell, leading to increased mileage per charge.
If you’ve worked with or studied battery systems, you’re certainly familiar with the term battery management system, or BMS. The phrase “Battery Management System” refers to a broad range of electrical devices that monitor and safeguard the battery in various ways. A battery management system is a monitoring device for batteries that may take action to safeguard them from certain types of use or other situations that might harm or limit their life.
So why do BMS costs vary from $10 to several thousand dollars? A perfect comparison would be to question why electric transportation systems range in price from a powered skateboard to a transport truck. Let’s see how this example applies to battery management systems.
General Motors (GM)electric cars will feature a wireless battery management system (wBMS) (EVs). The technology, created with Analog Devices, should power further e-mobility options.
This eliminates the need to build intricate wiring schematics for each new car and ensures battery scalability, according to several industry observers. Strong, dependable, and secure systems that are secured by the newest IT security measures are required.
GM’s wireless Vehicle Intelligence Platform may update the wBMS with additional software-based features. The wireless technology is certified by the FCC and CCC to assure interoperability and cybersecurity to secure our clients’ automobiles.
Battery Management System (BMS)
Electric vehicles and their battery management systems continue to advance. With the use of batteries in electric cars, electrical design has shifted toward a new generation of electric charge monitoring devices. Along with measuring the buildup of electric charge as a performance metric, monitoring guarantees extended battery life and eliminates circumstances that might cause harm to the cells or the electric vehicle itself.
The BMS regulates the complete array of lithium cells (individual cells or full battery packs), defining a safe operating region, that is, a zone within which the battery pack performs optimally in terms of technology and energy performance. In reality, the BMS is an electronic system that is responsible for the entire control of all diagnostic and safety functions on board the vehicle, as well as the management of excessive voltage onboard and the balancing of the electric charge.
Wireless BMS (wBMS)
Battery management is fundamental in e-mobility. The inclusion of WIFI makes it highly appealing yet delicate. It removes typical wired connections, conserving wiring and space in the battery pack while boosting design flexibility and streamlining manufacturing.
On a single chip, ADI’s wBMS integrates power, battery management, RF communication, and ASIL-D, and module-level safety functionalities. The technology maximizes power per cell for optimal vehicle range and supports safe and sustainable zero cobalt battery chemistry like lithium iron phosphate (LFP).
Today’s battleground for EV developers’ hearts and minds is extending the battery pack range. Continuous improvements in battery-cell monitoring ICs have boosted energy density, longevity, and dependability of packs that can handle the ac motor’s loads. Packs are dispersed around the vehicle to accommodate the enormous number of cells necessary. A battery pack might be located at the front, under the passenger compartment floor, or in the back.
Lithium-ion batteries lose capacity through time and use, therefore each cell in a system must be controlled to keep it charged (SOC). Batteries are often arranged into modules, which are controlled by a specific battery-management integrated circuit (BMIC). The BMIC measures the cell voltages and temperatures. A BMIC may typically monitor up to 16 series cells.
However, recognizing faults with a wired battery management method is difficult. Among them are repair costs and cumbersome wires weighing anywhere from 75 to 150 or even 200 pounds.
A lot of wire takes up space, reduces dependability and costs. Suppose the battery management system could be controlled wirelessly?
Benefits of wBMS
Wireless battery-management systems (wBMS) can continually monitor battery packs for SOH and SOC, promising to increase overall battery system safety and dependability. The wireless battery-management technology improves energy efficiency and hence enhances the driving range of the automobile with the same charge.
Cable failures are also extremely prevalent in the wiring harness and connections. Wireless BMS removes physical harnesses and cables, lowering end-user repair costs. Maintenance is further simplified by changing a single module rather than the whole battery.
A modular wireless solution minimizes engineering costs by allowing the integration of hardware and software across numerous vehicle platforms. Moreover, time is saved by not having to construct new communications systems or wiring schemes for each new vehicle.
What is the Concept of a Battery Management System?
A BMS is an electronic brain that maintains a rechargeable battery cell or pack by monitoring its status—primarily current, voltage, temperature, and state of charge—and computing secondary conditional data needed to regulate the battery’s environment and balance the pack’s cells. If everything is done correctly, a battery pack may be securely used for thousands of charge/discharge cycles.
Why would you want to use a Hardwired Battery Management System?
To begin, this is “the framework we are familiar with.” This is essentially how it has traditionally been done, and it does have certain advantages. Because it is kept inside the sealed battery pack, it is very hard to hack and hence extremely secure. Functional safety norms are readily met, and the conventional twisted-pair ring construction includes redundant wires in both directions.
Why should you consider using a wireless battery management system?
Wireless communication in the 2.4-GHz band may lower the weight of the BMS by up to 200 pounds for a big long-range electric car. Additionally, it considerably minimizes the complexity of the communications network; its reduced footprint enhances the system’s placement flexibility inside the vehicle. Additionally, it is easy to service (cable failures are currently a high warranty-cost item). Additionally, wireless communications reduce the time delay associated with information propagating up and down the wiring ring, allowing for time-synchronized measurements throughout the whole pack, as well as the possibility to synchronize additional quality metrics. Two milliseconds are stated to be the latency. Small improvements in voltage and temperature control may significantly increase a battery’s immediate range and ultimate life. Additionally, TI Auto motive’s technology is expandable up to 100 nodes, with each node monitoring sixteen battery cells.
What are the disadvantages of a wireless BMS?
The vehicle environment may provide radio frequency interference, and individual sensors that are not in the receiver’s line of sight can complicate wireless communications. Additionally, systems must be properly hardened against hacking and other security breaches, even if they function mostly inside the battery box. This often acts as an effective Faraday cage, ensuring that BMS communications do not interfere with in-cabin cellular or internet WiFi operations.
TI Automotive developed its system from the ground up for the automotive application, with a unique interface that has been tuned for automotive-grade safety issues. TI Automotive claims that their system is the first to achieve the highest Automotive Safety Integration Level (ASIL-D), as well as certification from TÜV SÜD of Germany. Its communications chips have powerful noise filters, and the system is secured at every layer using a variety of security-key authentication methods. TI asserts that its error rate is 10-7, or 0.0000001. Additionally, the system is set to resume within 300 milliseconds if it “crashes.”.
When will wireless battery management systems become commercially viable?
TI Automotive is being tight-lipped about which OEMs it is collaborating with and would only confirm that their technology will be commercially available “during the mid-term.” As such, this technology might be on the road shortly after Analog Devices Incorporated’s comparable arrangement debuts on the General Motors Ultium pack in the GMC Hummer EV and Cadillac Lyriq in 2022.
Wireless BMS for electric vehicles Weight reduction, design simplification, and performance enhancement
India’s battery monitoring system market is expected to expand at a rapid pace through 2026, due to the government’s push for battery-electric cars to save energy and minimize environmental pollution. Additionally, the growing need for renewable energy sources and the growing necessity to avoid unscheduled power outages will drive the India battery monitoring system market’s rise over the next five years.
The market for battery monitoring systems in India is categorized by component, type, battery type, end-user, and region. Hardware dominates the market and is projected to continue to do so because of the simplicity of installation, quicker data sampling, decreased cabling, and high-resolution data recording capabilities of hardware components such as sensors and data loggers.
Due to the rising implementation of battery monitoring systems in electric cars, golf carts, and material handling equipment, the automotive sector segment is likely to dominate the battery monitoring systems market.
SBS, Power shield, Schneider Electric, ABB, BatteryDAQ, HBL Power Systems, SOCOMEC Group, Curtis Instruments, Inc., Canara, and BTECH are some of the key companies in the India battery monitoring system market.
That’s all Folks!
“Wireless BMS enables engineers to simplify their designs, increase dependability, and decrease vehicle weight to increase driving range.” Automakers can accelerate manufacturing with the ability to scale designs across production models.”
“The use of wireless battery management systems will become more prevalent in the EV market as these advancements allow for greater design flexibility while also reducing complexity and cost in comparison to traditional systems,” the company said. “By demonstrating a solution that combines these benefits with ASIL D compliance, the system establishes a benchmark for the industry to follow.”
