British firm's digital EV battery twin accurately predicts lifespan
Swindon outfit develops the 'holy grail' of battery analytics: a virtual counterpart for modelling EV battery use
Battery analytics firm Silver Power Systems (SPS) claims it has achieved the "holy grail of battery modelling" with a new platform that can predict the usable lifespan of an electric vehicle battery.
Acknowledging that car makers' digital simulation tools can never truly replicate the real-world degradation of an EV battery, and that different use cases have varying impacts on a battery's health, the company is creating what it calls "the world's most advanced battery 'digital twin'".
Over the last nine months, it has been working on a research programme dubbed REDTOP (Real-time Electrical Digital Twin Operating Platform) in partnership with Imperial College, London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) and JSCA - the R&D arm of Cornwall-based Watt Electric Vehicle Company (WEVC).
The project, part-funded by the Advanced Propulsion Centre, aims to develop a virtual model of a battery - linked to a physical counterpart - which will give "not just an unprecedented view of real-time battery performance and state-of-health, but also the potential to enable these highly sophisticated battery models to predict battery lifespan," the company says.
As part of REDTOP, 50 LEVC taxis and WEVC's new electric sports coupé have travelled more than 300,000 miles, equipped with SPS's own data-collection device, which communicates over-the-air with the company's cloud-based software.
The data gathered in this process has been analysed by the 'EV-OPS' battery management platform and used by Imperial College researchers to create the digital twins.
SPS says the potential benefits of this technology are "enormous", explaining that it can give a comprehensive overview of battery activity, highlight differences between batteries and ultimately create a 'ledger' which shows the battery's health state over the life of the vehicle.
It suggests that EV manufacturers could use the virtual battery tool to accelerate vehicle development, fleet operators can streamline EV operations by charging and using their vehicles most efficiently, and fleet owners can calculate residuals based on the predicted battery health at a given time. Also of significance is the potential for battery warranties to be more accurately underwritten.
Pete Bishop, SPS's chief technology officer, said: "Understanding how an electric vehicle’s battery is performing right now – and predicting how it will perform over the coming years – is absolutely critical for many sectors. But to date there has been a lack of data and predictive modelling has been largely lab-based.
“By combining a robust real-world trial with our EV-OPS machine-learning analytics capability through the REDTOP programme, we have not only been able to unlock an unprecedented view of real-time battery performance and state-of-health but also create the world’s most advanced digital twin enabling prediction of battery future life.”
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