Estimating the state-of-charge of lithium-ion batteries using an H-infinity observer with consideration of the hysteresis characteristic

The conventional methods used to evaluate battery state-of-charge (SOC) cannot accommodate the chemistry nonlinearities, measurement inaccuracies and parameter perturbations involved in estimation systems. In this paper, an impedance-based equivalent circuit model has been constructed with respect to a LiFePO₄ battery by approximating the electrochemical impedance spectrum (EIS) with RC circuits. The efficiencies of approximating the EIS with RC networks in different series-parallel forms are first discussed. Additionally, the typical hysteresis characteristic is modeled through an empirical approach. Subsequently, a methodology incorporating an H-infinity observer designated for open-circuit voltage (OCV) observation and a hysteresis model developed for OCV-SOC mapping is proposed. Thereafter, evaluation experiments under FUDS and UDDS test cycles are undertaken with varying temperatures and different current-sense bias. Experimental comparisons, in comparison with the EKF based method, indicate that the proposed SOC estimator is more effective and robust. Moreover, test results on a group of Li-ion batteries, from different manufacturers and of different chemistries, show that the proposed method has high generalization capability for all the three types of Li-ion batteries.