This course can also be taken for academic credit as ECEA 5734, part of CU Boulder’s Master of Science in Electrical Engineering degree.
This course is part of the Algorithms for Battery Management Systems Specialization
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About this Course
What you will learn
How to design balancers and power-limits estimators for lithium-ion battery packs
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University of Colorado Boulder
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Syllabus - What you will learn from this course
Passive balancing methods for battery packs
In previous courses, you learned how to write algorithms to satisfy the estimation requirements of a battery management system. Now, you will learn how to write algorithms for two primary control tasks: balancing and power-limits computations. This week, you will learn why battery packs naturally become unbalanced, some balancing strategies, and how passive circuits can be used to balance battery packs.
Active balancing methods for battery packs
Passive balancing can be effective, but wastes energy. Active balancing methods attempt to conserve energy and have other advantages as well. This week, you will learn about active-balancing circuitry and methods, and will learn how to write Octave code to determine how quickly a battery pack can become out of balance. This is useful for determining the dominant factors leading to imbalance, and for estimating how quickly the pack must be balanced to maintain it in proper operational condition.
How to find available battery power using a simplified cell model
This week, we begin by reviewing the HPPC power-limit method from course 1. Then, you will learn how to extend the method to satisfy limits on SOC, load power, and electronics current. You will learn how to implement the power-limits computation methods in Octave code, and will see results for a representative scenario.
How to find available battery power using a comprehensive cell model
The HPPC method, even as extended last week, makes some simplifying assumptions that are not met in practice. This week, we explore a more accurate method that uses full state information from an xKF as its input, along with a full ESC cell model to find power limits. You will learn how to implement this method in Octave code and will compare its computations to those from the HPPC method you learned about last week.
Reviews
TOP REVIEWS FROM BATTERY PACK BALANCING AND POWER ESTIMATION
This is one of the best and most useful specialization in my eyes. I would encourage every person interested in EV domain to learn it. Thank you Dr Gregory Plett for this course
Professor visualization is excellent and his explanation is extraordinary with the material.I am very Happy to complete this course and very Informative.
Excellent courses. Dr. Plett did a great job teaching this very relevant topic.
It is an excellent course for battery enthusiasts.
About the Algorithms for Battery Management Systems Specialization
In this specialization, you will learn the major functions that must be performed by a battery management system, how lithium-ion battery cells work and how to model their behaviors mathematically, and how to write algorithms (computer methods) to estimate state-of-charge, state-of-health, remaining energy, and available power, and how to balance cells in a battery pack.

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