UC Irvine

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) were presented as a solution to multidisciplinary integration and control in embedded systems. They provide seamless interactions between cyber and physical domains, enabling more intelligent and complicated control applications. However, CPS face the challenges of reliability and energy efficiency since they mainly rely on batteries for power supply. We investigate these issues with Electric Vehicles (EV) which are common battery-powered CPS. EV were introduced as a mean of transportation to address environmental problems like air and noise pollution. However, their stringent design constraints, especially on battery packs, create challenges of limited driving range and battery lifetime for daily drivers and manufacturers. Design automation community has been addressing these by developing more efficient and dependable devices and control methodologies. Our contributions in this thesis will embrace: 1) novel machine learning and physics-based modeling techniques to capture CPS dynamics more accurately; 2) unique optimization problem formulations to make optimal control decisions; and 3) intelligent control methodologies that leverage the modeling and interaction within CPS to achieve reliable and efficient operation. These contributions are applied to the systems in EV such as navigation system, climate control, and battery management system. Our objectives are to further extend the EV driving range and prolong the battery lifetime while maintaining similar driving experience and comfort for passengers.