UNIVERSITY OF AKRON

ENGINEERING FACULTY ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER DEPARTMENT Sensors and Instrumentation

Dr. Nathan Ida Course 4400: 693

Report For course Project on Battery Management System

Student Name: Sarita Bhandari Student Number: 2353480 Due Date: December 10, 2010

ABSTRACT
This report deals with the design and implementation of Battery Management system as a course project for Sensors and Instrumentation. This project focused on the implementation of different sensors to determine different parameters of the battery. This system is responsible for monitoring temperature, pressure, voltage and current of the battery. By performing analytical modelling on the sensors data, this system generates control signals in order to control the battery from excessive temperature, pressure, voltage and current. Furthermore, this system is also responsible for displaying the current status of the battery.

Table of Contents
ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................................................... 1 I. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................... 4 I.1 OVERVIEW OF THE PROJECT ................................................................................................................ 4 I.1.1 Requirements of the System......................................................................................................... 4 I.1.2 General Block Diagram and Components Requirement ............................................................... 4 II. DISCUSSION AND IMPLEMENTATION ..................................................................................................... 6 II.1 CONTROL UNIT .................................................................................................................................... 6 II.2 TEMPERATURE SENSOR ...................................................................................................................... 7 II.2.1 Implementation of Temperature Sensor ..................................................................................... 8 II.2.2 Implementation Issue of Temperature Sensor ............................................................................ 9 II.3 AUTOMATIC CHARGE DISCHARGE CIRCUIT WITH A VOLTAGE AND CURRENT DETECTOR .............. 10 II.4 FORCE SENSOR RESISTOR ................................................................................................................. 11 II.4.1 Calibration of Force Sensor Resistor .......................................................................................... 11 II.4.2 Implementation of Force Sensor Resistor ................................................................................. 13 II.4.3 Practical Issues with Force Sensor Resistor ............................................................................... 15 III. IV. CONCLUSION AND POSSIBLE EXTENSION ....................................................................................... 16 REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................... 17

Table of Figures
Figure i: General Block Diagram of Battery Management System .............................................................5 Figure ii: Circuit Diagram of the Battery Management System ..................................................................6 Figure iiii: Block diagram of Temperature Sensor........................................................................................7 Figure iv: Circuit implementation of temperature sensor...........................................................................8 Figure v: Temperature verses voltage.........................................................................................................9 Figure vi: Circuit Diagram for Current and Voltage Detection and Automatic Charge Discharge .............10 Figure vii: Conductance verses voltage......................................................................................................12 Figure viii: Block diagram of FSR implementation......................................................................................13 Figure ix: Interfacing circuit for FSR to explorer 16....................................................................................14

I. INTRODUCTION
A battery management system is a system that automatically charges and discharges a battery without harming the battery. In order to protect the battery from excessive pressure, temperature, current and voltage, the battery can be continuously monitored and appropriate decision can be made by the system. For example, if the battery pressure changes to a high value, then the battery management system will stop the operation of the battery in order to prevent it from being damaged. This project deals with the design of the battery management system that can control the battery from overcharging and discharging, over-heating and high pressures. The primary objective of this project is to prolong battery life by detecting different parameters of the battery using sensors and generating control signals from those detected parameters which are fed back to the battery control circuit.

I.1 OVERVIEW OF THE PROJECT

In this project, the requirements of the battery management system are identified and presented. Various sensors are applied in the design of the battery management system and the performance and implementation process of every individual sensors are briefly discussed. This project mainly focuses on the use of sensors that are use to detect important parameters of battery in order to control the battery. Hence, this project discusses all types of sensors that are implemented in this project along with their practical implementation issues. The general block diagram of the battery management systems is shown in figure below.

I.1.1 Requirements of the System The basic requirements of the system are The system should be able to charge and discharge the battery Stop the charge discharge process when necessary Detect the operating temperature of the battery Detect the pressure of the battery Display all the parameters (voltage, current, pressure, temperature) in computer or any display unit Switch the battery to charging state or discharging state depending on the charge status of the battery

I.1.2 General Block Diagram and Components Requirement The general block diagram of the system is shown in figure below.

Display Unit (Computer) Temperature Sensor Analog to Digital conversion unit (ADC) Analog input Pressure Sensor

Control Unit (PIC 24)

Digital Output

Voltage Sensor Current Sensor

Fed back and Control signal

Automatic Charge Discharge Circuit with power supply

Battery

Figure i: General Block Diagram of Battery Management System

List of the components used in the system are 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Control Unit Display Unit Temperature Sensor Voltage and Current Sensor Automatic charge discharge circuit

II. DISCUSSION AND IMPLEMENTATION

This chapter focuses on the discussion and implementation of the above mention parts of the project. The successful implementation of each and every part is most in order to obtain the objective of the Battery Management System. Figure 2 shows the circuit diagram of entire system.

Figure ii: Circuit Diagram of the Battery Management System

II.1 CONTROL UNIT

To realize a Battery Management System with the above mentioned parts and objectives, interfacing and co-working between all these components is mandatory. Therefore PIC24FJ128 Microcontroller is chosen to process the data, and to generate the control signals. The objective of this processor is to keep track of all the input data namely temperature, pressure, voltage, current. In addition, depending upon the fed back data, this processor is designed to make the responsible decision to control the battery from being harmed.

Analog to Digital Converter Unit All the sensors output data are analog in nature. Therefore analog to digital conversion of these analog data need to be done before fed back these data to the processor. The PIC24FJ128 (1) is best processor for this project because of the availability of the inbuilt analog to digital converter unit. Some pins of the PIC24 (microcontroller) can be used as analog pin, by configuring these pins as analog pin. Proper configuration bit has been calculated for these analog pin, as described in microcontroller datasheet (2), to choose the reference voltage level and bit resolution.

II.2 TEMPERATURE SENSOR

Variety of temperature sensors are available in the market which focused on different parameters like cost, measurement accuracy, durability and temperature sensing range. In general, there are three types of temperature sensors and they are (i) Thermocouple, (ii) Thermistor and (iii) Integrated circuit. Thermocouple is junction like apparatus that uses two dissimilar metals in its junction. In thermocouples, voltage potential changes between two contact junctions with the changes in temperature as these two terminals are made from dissimilar metals. Thermocouple works on the principal of resistance temperature detectors (RTD). These RTDs uses elements that are responsive toward temperature. The resistance of these resistive elements changes with changing temperature. Therefore, RTDs use this property of the elements to detect the temperature. Some examples of such resistive elements used in market are: Platinum, Nickel, and Copper. Integrated circuit temperature sensors are the sensors that make uses of transistor and diode to detect the temperature. LM35 (3) Integrated circuit is used in this Battery management project to detect operating temperature of a battery. This Integrated circuit is easy to use, as there is a linear relation between the temperature and a pressure. Another important feature of this Integrated circuit is that this LM35 is calibrated by the manufacturing company. Therefore, when the power is applied to LM35, it produces the voltage as an output that is proportional to the temperature in degree centigrade. The LM35 temperature sensor is an Analog IC, therefore an analog to digital conversion is required to read the output voltage of the LM35. In explorer 16, inbuilt analog to digital conversion is available therefore any analog pin can be used to read the output voltage of temperature sensor. Furthermore, there is flexibility to choose internal or external reference voltages for analog to digital conversion as per requirement. The general block diagram for the implementation of temperature sensor is shown in figure below.
(LM35 ) temperature Sensor ADC

Vref (reference voltage)

PIC 24

Analog pin with inbuilt analog to digital conversion

Figure i: Block diagram of Temperature sensor

The specification of above mention temperature sensor is given as: a) b) c) d) e) f) Directly Calibrated in degree centigrade The output voltage is linear to the temperature with 10.0 mV/C scale factor Range of operation is :-55 C to +150 C Operates from 4 Volts to 30 Volts 0.5 C accuracy is guaranteed Nonlinearity of C

Base on datasheet of LM35, the relation between the output voltage and temperature is given by

T (deg C ) Vout *10(mv / deg C )

II.2.1 Implementation of Temperature Sensor A circuit designed to interface the LM35 temperature sensor with explorer 16 and the battery management box is shown in Figure ii. Here, 104nF capacitor and 407 resistor is used to control the instability of the output voltage due to the self heating of the LM35 IC.
470 +5V (LM35) Vout (PIC input) 100nF

Figure ii: Circuit implementation of temperature sensor

Output voltage Vout of Figure ii is fed to an analog pin of PIC24 (explorer 16) which is internally configured (programmed) to read an analog voltage range from 0 Volt to +5 Volts. PIC24 provides 10 bit resolution to the analog to digital conversion. The expression used to calculate the temperature by the analog pin of PIC24 is given by

T (deg C) 100*Vout ...

where,

... .. .... .. .... ........ ...... ..... ...(a)

Vout Vref

Analog Reading *(Vref

Vref ) /1024

In spite of the specification provided by manufacturing company about the relation of temperature and pressure given by equation (a), in practice slightly modification in this relation has been done to reduce

the approximation error in temperature. After several experiment the relation between temperature and pressure is slightly modified to reduce the error of approximation, and the modified expression is

T (deg C) Vout *100(mV / deg C) 2

Figure iii shows linear relation between temperature and pressure.

Figure iii Temperature verses voltage

II.2.2 Implementation Issue of Temperature Sensor Problem faced during the implementation of the temperature sensor are listed below Less stable temperature sensor output due to the present of offset voltage Temperature rises than actual value due to the self heating of the IC More than 1C of error in reading In temperature sensor, which is factory calibrated, some level of instability is reduce by adding some circuit complexity and taking the temperature reading for multiple times and averaging it value.

II.3 AUTOMATIC CHARGE DISCHARGE CIRCUIT WITH A VOLTAGE AND CURRENT DETECTOR
A circuit has been designed to provide constant current for charging and discharging the battery. As these current and voltage are analog in nature, so an analog PIN of the microcontroller is used with proper Analog to Digital conversion configuration. The current and voltage of the battery is monitored continuously at fixed interval of time in order to keep track of the status of the battery. Simple analytical modeling has been performed in the monitored data of battery. Base on this modeling, the processor decides to either charge, discharge or rests the battery. Furthermore, the processor sends all these data in the display unit i.e computer.

Figure vi: Circuit Diagram for Current and Voltage Detection and Automatic Charge Discharge

In addition, the circuit shown in figure above is also responsible for providing the constant current for charging and discharging the battery. User has flexibility to change the charging current of the battery by simply changing the resistance of a variable resistor (R26). Two Digital Pin of microcontroller are used in this circuit in order to control the charging and discharging cycle. Full and detail design and description of the automatic charge discharge circuit are beyond the gasp of this subject.
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II.4 FORCE SENSOR RESISTOR

Force Sensing Resistor (3) is thin polymer film device that can detect physical pressure, squeezing force and weight. Force Sensing Resistor is simply a variable resistor whose resistance value changes with changing the pressure or squeezing force or weight. (FSR) Force Sensing Resistor is ideal for measuring the force on the static object, though it can also be used to measure the force of static as well as dynamic object. FSR is made of four different layers of different material and they are A thin layer of electrically insulating plastic An active area with the conductors pattern which is connected to the leads on the tail to be charged with an electrical voltage A plastic adhesive spacer, which includes an opening aligned with the active area as well as an air vent through the tail A flexible substrate coated with a thick polymer conductive film, aligned with the active area. Though the FSR comprises of four different layers, the thickness of FSR (four layers) is just 0.02 inch. When there is no pressure, the sensor looks like an infinite resistor and as the pressure increases, the resistance decreases. When external force is applied to the sensor, the resistive element present in the active area is deformed against the substrate. Then air from the spacer opening is pushed through the air vent in the tail, which causes the conductive material of the active area on the substrate to come to contact. Therefore, the more the active area (conductive elements) touched by the load, the lower will be the resistance. Specification of the FSR mentions that it can measure the force range from 0 lb to 20 lb (0 Newton to 1000 Newton). The resistance of the FSR is in the range of Mega Ohm for no pressure, 100 k for low load and 100 for high load condition. But the relation between the force and the resistance is not linear in nature. From datasheets, it has been observed that it is hard to approximate the force by simply looking at the change in resistance of the FSR.

II.4.1 Calibration of Force Sensor Resistor In order to calibrate the Force Sensor Resistor one need to apply a known force and record its corresponding resistance. If the corresponding resistance from a pool of known weight is tested, then one can use interpolation formula to determine the relation between the resistance and weight for the entire range i.e from no load to maximum load. In order to properly calibrate the Force sensor Resistor, the upper area of the sensor is covered by the rubber. Rubber is flexible and helps to equally distribute an applied force in the entire active surface area of the Force Sensor Resistor, so it is chosen to cover the Force Sensor Resistor. This rubber also helps to enhance the contact between the load and the sensor. Highlighting points for the calibration of Forcer Sensor Resistor are Ensure proper contact between the sensor and load

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 even load distribution in the sensors active area Avoid loading the sensor near the saturation level Run experiment at same temperature For calibration, resistance of the Force Sensor Resistor is measured for a series of different known Load. Observed resistance value of the Force Sensor Resistor for every corresponding load is listed in Table 1.

No. of observation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Force in Lb 0 10 20 20 40 50 60

Resistance 10 M 5K 2.5K 1.6K 1.4K 1.2K 1K

Table 1: Load verses Resistance

Another important fact about the Force Sensor Resistor is that though the relation between the resistance and Force is not linear, conductance of the Force Sensor Resistor has a linear relation with the load. Thus, to establish a relation between the conductance and the load, matlab simulation is performed on the above collected data. After performing simulation on the experimental data, linear relation between the force and the conductance is established .The figure and the equation (b) shows the relation between the force and the conductance for the experimental as well as simulated value.

Figure vii: Conductance verses Force

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Thus from the linear interpolation,

a1* F ( Force) b1.

Coefficients are:

..(b)

a1 0.014182 b1 0.10985

II.4.2 Implementation of Force Sensor Resistor The main issue that needs to be considered during the implementation of Force Sensor Resistor is its sensitivity requirement. Therefore, depending upon the system requirement of sensitivity and accuracy, one can choose the appropriate reference voltage and power supply for the FSR. The sensitivity of the sensor to some extent can be adjusted by changing the reference voltage, and the drive voltage. A high reference voltage may result in high sensitivity of the Force Sensor Resistor. The general block diagram of the implementation of the Force Sensor Resistor is shown in figure below. As the output value of the FSR is just a voltage that ranges from 0 Volt to +3.3 Volts, thus an analog PIN of PIC24 is used. The analog PIN is so configured that convert the analog value from the range of 0 volt to + 3.3 Volt with 10 bits bit resolution.

(FSR) Force Sensor Resistor

ADC

Vref (reference voltage)

PIC 24

Analog pin with inbuilt analog to digital conversion

Figure iv: Block diagram of FSR implementation

In general, Force Sensor Resistor can be symbolized as the variable resistor that range from several ohms to mega ohms. The circuit used to interface the Force sensor resistor with the PIC24 is shown in figure below. Here, a capacitor and a resistor were added to overcome the sensitivity issue of the Force Sensor Resistor. When there is no load on the Force Sensor Resistor, the output voltage (Vout) is zero. And when there is some load in the Force Sensor Resistor, the output voltage is not zero and can be measured by the PIC24 analog PIN.

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+3.3 V

(FSR)

407 Vout 100nF 10 K

Figure ix: Interfacing circuit for FSR to explorer 16

By measuring the output voltage via the analog PIN of this interfacing circuit for any loaded condition, one can calculate the Force of that particular load by using the simulated interpolation formula in following manner.

Vout Vref
From voltage divided rule,

(Analog Reading)*(Vref

Vref )*3.3Volt /1024

Vout 3.3Volt *10k / (10k

Therefore,

FSR)

FSR Vout *10k / 3.3Volt 10K

Then the conductance is given by

1/ FSR
Now, the Force can be calculated as

Force (
Where,

b1) / a1

a1 0.014182 b1 0.10985
Hence in this manner the force is calculated for any observed resistance.

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II.4.3 Practical Issues with Force Sensor Resistor As the Force Sensor Resistor is not factory calibrated, the calibration part is difficult and time consuming. Following are the list of problems that occurred while working with Force Sensor Resistor. Difficult to establish the relation between the conductance and Force for interpolation The accuracy offered by the interpolation formula is about 5% to 15% The Force Sensor Resistor is unable to measure the lower Force value The sensitivity level of Force Sensor Resistor is low, as it can not exactly detect the 0.5 Lb of force change. If the loading object surface area is wider than the active surface area of Force Sensor Resistor, the accuracy level decreases than specified The force sensor can properly sense the force that are perpendicular to the sensor, therefore the Force sensor resistor is better to measure pressure or squeezing force. The sensor connecting tips are very fragile

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III. CONCLUSION AND POSSIBLE EXTENSION

In conclusion, the design and implementation of the Battery Management System as a course project was implemented successfully. In the first phase, interfacing circuit for the sensors and microcontroller is designed. Before implementation of this circuit, simulation and calibration of these sensors and circuit is done, in order to properly understand the operation and minimize the inaccuracy level. During the implementation phase, sensitivity of the sensors was the major problem faced on the sensors. The issue of sensitivity is handled by adding stability circuit and reading the sensors value for multiple times and averaging it. For future work, various other components can be added in the system, to make the system more robust. Gas emission sensor is one very important factor that can be incorporated to detect the emission of harmful gases, which helps to avoid battery explosion.

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IV. REFERENCES
1. Programming 16-Bit PIC Microcontrollers in C: Learning to Fly the PIC 24 (Embedded Technology) . [book auth.] Lucio Di Jasio. 2. PIC24FJ128GA010 Family Data Sheet. MICROCHIP. [Online] http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/devicedoc/39747D.pdf. 3. Force Sensor Resistor. Forums. [Online] http://www.ladyada.net/learn/sensors/fsr.html. 4. LM35 PRECISE TEMPERATURE SENSOR. [Online] National Semiconductor. http://www.national.com/ds/LM/LM34.pdf. 5. Explorer 16 Starter Kit. Microchip. [Online] http://www.microchip.com/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=1406&dDocName=en027853.

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