A Modular Battery Management System for

Electric Vehicles
Ignacio Carlucho#1, Roberto de la Vega #2, Marcelo Spina #3, Gerardo G. Acosta #4
#
Grupo INTELYMEC, Centro de Investigaciones en Física e Ingeniería del Centro (CIFICEN-CONICET- CICpBA),Fac.
de Ingeniería - Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Prov. de Buenos Aires (UNCPBA), Olavarría B7400JWI, Argentina
1
ignacio.carlucho@fio.unicen.edu.ar
2
rjdlv@fio.unicen.edu.ar
3
mspina@fio.unicen.edu.ar
4
gerardo.acosta@ieee.org

Abstract— In electric vehicles the energy storage provided
by the batteries is of utmost importance: it provides autonomy
to the vehicle. However rechargeable batteries cannot operate
alone, a Battery Management System is needed to provide safe
operation conditions, monitor its state and balance its charge.
In this article a Battery Management System is developed for
applications in electric vehicles and autonomous robotics. We
design the system in a modular way to give flexibility and allow
portability to different type of battery packs. Low-cost
microcontrollers were used for the system providing also
communication with the vechicle's on-board computer. A
passive balancing schemed is chosen as a way of battery
balancing. The proposed system was tested using a battery
pack demonstrating its balancing capabilities.
Resumen— En los vehículos eléctricos la acumulación de
energía proveída por las baterías es de alta importancia, ya
que le provee autonomía. Sin embargo, las baterías de litio no
pueden operar solas, necesitan de un sistema de control de
baterías que sea capaz de supervisar su operación, monitorear
su estado y balancear su energía. En este artículo se desarrolla
un sistema de manejo de baterías para aplicaciones en
vehículos eléctricos y robótica autónoma. El sistema se diseñó
en una forma modular para brindar flexibilidad y portabilidad
a diferentes tipos de packs de baterías. Microcontroladores de
bajo costo fueron utilizados para el sistema, proveyendo a su
vez comunicación con la computadora on-board del vehículo.
Un sistema de balanceo pasivo fue elegido para ecualizar las
celdas. El sistema propuesto fue probado con un pack
demostrando sus capacidades de balanceo.
I. INTRODUCTION
Energy storage systems are an important part of electric
vehicles (EV) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) and
autonomous robots. In current applications Lithium cells are
widely used to supply energy to the vehicles, due to their
high power density, good thermal and chemical stability,
environmental friendly production and recycling, and long
lifespan [1].
However, lithium cells have a limited operative region, a
maximum and minimum voltage in which the cells should
be kept [2]. Over stressing the cells, either caused by an
over-voltage or under voltage situation, could cause a
decrease in the life span of the cell, a permanent damage or
in the worst cause a fire [3][4] .
Furthermore, this type of cells have relative low voltages
(around 3.7V) and low capacities (10Ah). Therefore it is
necessary to create cell arrays in order to provide the
required voltage and current to the vehicles, in some cases
around 300V [5]. These serial and parallel arrangement of
the cells are called packs, depending on the application,
packs can have hundreds of cells. However, creating battery
packs can overstress some cells in the arrangement, since all
cells are different, therefore those with less energy could be
overcharged, or over discharged, risking the health of the
whole pack.
These issues make the implementation of a battery
management system (BMS) necessary. A BMS has the
function of monitoring the voltage and temperature of the
cells making sure that no over-stressing of occurs. The BMS
should also be able to estimate the state of charge (SOC) of
the battery pack. Estimating the remaining energy in the
battery is crucial in EV since it gives an idea of the
remaining autonomy.
Another important task of the BMS is the balancing of
the pack [6]. Since all the cells have different capacities
(due to physical differences), when packs are formed some
sector have higher capacities than others. This causes that
during successive charge and discharge cycles, cells with
lower capacity will be overstressed. Furthermore, the
discharge of the pack will have to be stop when this lower
capacity cells reach a voltage threshold, causing that not all
the energy of the pack is fully available to the user.
Therefore in order to preserve the health of the cells and to
use all the available energy, it is required to balance the
pack, assuring that all the cells have similar SOC [7]. There
are usually two ways of achieving this, passive and active
methods. The former uses dissipation to remove energy
from the cells with the higher energy, while the latter stores
the energy of the cells with higher SOC and uses it to charge
the cells with lower energy levels.
In this article we present a modular BMS, for EV, capable
of adjusting to different battery packs. The proposed BMS
can balance the cells in the pack by using a passive balance
method. In addition, the SOC can be estimated by means of
the Coulomb counting method. The proposed approach is
tested on a battery pack to test the balancing capabilities.
This article is organised as follows. In section II we
present a more thorough explanation of the battery
management systems. Section III presents the design of our
system. In Section IV results are presented, followed by
Section V that shows our conclusions.
 II. BATTERY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
A BMS is an important part of every vehicle that uses
lithium battery as accumulators. The BMS is in charge of
balancing the cells, monitoring their voltage, temperature
and current, and communicating this to the user. Another
important task of the BMS is the SOC estimation. The SOC
is a value representing the percentage of remaining energy
in the cell, a critical value for electrical vehicles.
Furthermore, the State of Health (SOH) could also be
estimated. The SOH is a number that represents the aging of
the cells, a process that occurs as successive charge and
discharge cycles are done. In the next subsections the cell
balancing and the state of charge estimation are explained in
more detail.
A. Cell Balancing
Balancing of the cells becomes essential in the packs
used in EV and HEV. As was mentioned previously, every
cell has different capacity due to imperfections caused
during manufacturing as well as different operational
conditions. This causes that cells with lower capacity
become over stressed, reducing both the amount of energy
available and the lifespan of the pack. To solve this issue
the cells have to be balanced. Two methods are used for this:
passive or active balance.
Passive balance has as an advantage its simplicity and
lower comparable cost [8]. The passive balance consist in
connecting a resistor in parallel with the cells with the
higher SOC. The excessive energy is thus dissipated into the
environment as heat. This is the major disadvantage of this
method, as this dissipation is inefficient, since all the
excessive energy is wasted.
On the other hand, active methods, try to make use of this
excessive energy. By means of other energy accumulators,
like capacitors, the energy that is extracted from the cells
with higher SOC is then used to charge the cells with lower
SOC. As a disadvantage, this method is usually more
complex, since it requires extra accumulators and more
complex switching for connecting the cells, and more
expensive, for the same reasons [9].
A passive balancing methods is presented in [10] where
the authors take advantage of the internal resistor of the
MOSFET used for switching to help balance battery packs
with higher capacities. In [11] a capacitor is used to store
the energy of the batteries with higher charge, which will
later charge the lower cells. This procedure is done by
means of a control system, which by means of a switching
scheme, can re direct the energy flow accordingly and also
determine the duty cycle depending on the capacitor
behaviour. A multi-winding transformer is used in [12] to
balance the lower cells. The energy of the entire pack is
used by the transformer allowing multiple cells to be
balanced at the same type, providing faster equalisation.
Figure 1. Schematic of the whole system
B. State of charge estimation
The State of Charge (SOC) of a cell, is a number that
represents the remaining energy in the cell or the battery
pack. This number is a perceptual, and has a high utility to
the user since it gives an idea of the remaining usable
energy in the pack. That for EV has a direct relationship
with the available distance that could still be travelled
before a charge is needed. Estimating the SOC is not a
trivial task, since this value cannot be measured directly and
depends on the current operational conditions [13].
Research is being done on this topic and currently some
methods are proposed to try to estimate this value online,
during operation.
The SOC can be estimated online using a bookkeeping
method, called Coulomb counting [14]. This method
measures the energy that comes in and out of the battery,
allowing thus to estimate its value as:
I (t ) * dt
SOC (t ) =SOC (t − 1) + (1)
Qn
where SOC(t) and SOC(t-1) are the state of charge at time t
and t-1 respectively, I(t) is the current coming in or out of
the battery, Qn is the nominal capacity of the battery and dt
is the sampling time.
However, this method has as a disadvantage: it requires
an initial estimation of the SOC. To solve this, the initial
voltage of the pack could be used to give an estimation, but
this estimation can be poor, especially during the nominal
work conditions, where voltages values are relatively
constant. Nonetheless, the voltage exponential region,
during full charge, and the voltage cut-off, achieved when
the cell is discharged, are clear indicators of the current
SOC. This values, therefore, could be used to validate or
compensate for variations in the SOC. This, technique
together with storing the last estimated SOC, can prove to
be enough to provide a reliable estimation.
Another methods use intelligent techniques to try to
estimate the value of SOC. In [15] neural networks were
used to estimate the SOC value of a hybrid battery and
super capacitors system. Another method widely used for
this task is fuzzy logic [16], [17].
 III. SYSTEM DESIGN
Looking to obtain a BMS for applications in EV and
HEV, like the electric vehicle developed at our university
the Pampa Solar I and Pampa Solar 2, it is desired that the
system could easily adapt to different type of battery packs,
without much reconfiguration. Therefore we looked at
modularity as a way of accomplish this. We design the BMS
in modules that could be expanded as required by the pack.
The BMS counts of two modules, the SOC estimation
module and the balancing module. Each one of this modules
communicates over a Local Interconnect Bus (LIN), a serial
communication protocol used in vehicles. The general
connection scheme can be seen in Fig. 1. In the next
subsections each module will be explained.
A. Balancing Module
The module is in charge of monitoring the voltage of the
individual cells and of balancing the pack by equalising the
individual cells. To achieve this, a passive balancing
scheme was chosen due to its simplicity and low
comparable cost to other methods.
The Texas Instruments bq76PL536 integrated circuit (IC)
[18] was chosen as analogue front end. The bq76 can
measure the voltage of six cells in series and has dedicated
outputs that allow it to send commands to control externals
MOSFET to balance the cells. The IC communicates with a
master microcontroller by SPI. This master is in charge of
the balancing algorithms and the configuration of the IC.
This IC can be stacked vertically to provide protection to up
to 192 cells, by means of a SPI interface that connects
vertically up to 32 ICs, therefore allowing for modularity. A
connection schematic is shown in Fig. 2.
Figure 2. Balancing module schematic
The balancing module is divided in two boards: the local
master, which has the local master microcontroller with all
the necessary connections for communication, and the
power board with the bq76, the MOSFETs and the
balancing resistors. This disposition allows for versatility,
since the board that holds the local master is generic it can
also be used by the other modules that have a dedicated
master. Moreover, when battery packs with bigger voltage
are needed, it is only necessary to add dedicated boards to
fit the particular needs.
In addition, the design of the dedicated board was done in
a way so that a third board, called the power board, could be
implemented. This third board only holds the power
resistors and the required MOSFETs for switching.
Therefore, it could be used in cases where bigger resistors
are needed for balancing. For instance when battery packs
with higher capacity are used, usually by arranging n
numbers of cells in parallel, then instead of having to
redesign the dedicated board completely power boards
could be implemented with the required resistors and
switches to obtain the required balancing current. In Fig. 3 a
schematic of the connections of the dedicated board
together with the power board are shown, compare this to
Fig. 2 to have an overview of the possible connections.
As it was previously described the modular way of the
design allows for high versatility. We show in Fig. 4 the
final design of the dedicated board together with the local
host.
Figure 3. Balancing module schematic with the connections of the
power board
Figure 4. Picture of the balancing module
An important part of this system is the algorithm in
charge of the cell balancing. The algorithm is performed by
the local master. For our application we used the Texas
Instruments MSP430f247 microcontroller. The local master
commands the bq76, by an SPI bus, to activate the
MOSFETS that, when opened, put a balancing resistor in
parallel with the cells that require equalising. The algorithm
used to balance the cells is shown in Algorithm 1. It is
important to notice that one of the main components of the batteries are charging. If this is not the case, the system is
algorithm is a variable called Charging. This variable is discharging. It is important to note that for Algorithm 2 to
provided to the balancing module via BUS LIN, and the work correctly the battery pack needs to be equalized,
state of the variable is calculated in the SOC estimation otherwise the SOC will be affected by the battery with the
module, explained in the next subsection. minimum energy.
The algorithm works as follow. When the system is not
charging (Charging = False) the balancing module will only
monitor the state of the cells, without applying any
balancing. However the user will be alerted in case any cell
is overstressed, i.e. overvoltage or under voltage, via bus
LIN communication. On the other hand, if the system is
charging (Charging = True), then the cell balancing will be
applied, together with the monitor of the state of the cells.
This difference between charge and discharge is done
because of the balancing method applied. When we are
balancing the cells, energy is being dissipated by the
resistors. Therefore if the balancing is done while the
vehicle is being used, the user will have less available
energy for mobility and this is not desired. Therefore,
balancing is only applied during charging cycles.
Figure 5. Picture of the SOC Estimation Module

Algorithm 1 C. The Whole System

The two previously described modules interact with each
1. Start system, configure ICs other via a LIN bus. Both local master, comprised by the
2. repeat (while system is on): msp430 microcontrollers, act as a slave of a global LIN
3. Charging = get_charging_state(); master. The global master communicates with the on-board
4. if Charging: computer of the EV, giving the user direct information of
5. Balance(); the estate of the system. In the present work only the BMS
part of the system is described, but more modules could be
6. else attached to the global master as it will be required by the
7. Monitor_state(); application.
8. end if
9. wait (until tsample) Algorithm 2
8. end repeat
1. Start system, configure parameters
2. soc(t) = read_soc_memory();
B. SOC Estimation Module 3. repeat (while system is on)
The module is in charge of estimating the SOC of the 4. if Vpack >= V_fullcharge
battery. This is achieved by means of the Coulomb counting 5. soc = 100%
method, due to its simplicity. Therefore to do so the module 6. else Vpack <= V_fulldischarge
requires a precise measurement of the current. However,
based on the other methods previously discussed to estimate 7. soc = 0%
the SOC, and to give versatility and allow more complex 8. end if
estimations of this value in the future, the voltage and 9. soc(t) = soc(t-1) + I(t) * dt / Qn
temperature of the battery pack are also measured. 10. if I is positive
Following the design employed in the balancing module, 11. Charging = True
two boards were used: one with the master microcontroller
and another with the necessary sensors. A picture of the 12. else
final board implemented in the vehicle Pampa Solar II can 13. Charging = False
be seen in Fig. 5. 14. end if
The Algorithm used for the SOC estimation is presented 10. end repeat
in Algorithm 2. The systems uses a Coulomb counting
method, but by taking advantage of the knowledge of the
battery capacity the voltages at full charge and discharge are
used to calibrate for errors introduced during estimation.
The algorithm also determines if the system is charging or
not, and defines the Charging variable, that will then be
used by the balancing module. This variable is send via bus
LIN. The definition of said variable is simple done by
measuring sign of the current. If the current is positive, this
means that energy is given to the system, and therefore the
 IV. RESULTS
The proposed system was tested in the lab using a smaller
number of cells than those required for the EV. The pack
tested had 6 LiFePo4 cells in series, with each cell having
3.3V nominal voltage and a capacity of 10Ah, giving the
pack a total of 18V and 10Ah. For the charging cycles a
controlled source was used to provide the required voltage
and current. The charging process is done in the following
way: the battery pack is charged at constant current, until
the pack reaches a voltage threshold, after this point the
voltage is kept constant while the current diminishes until it
reaches a minimum threshold. On the other hand, for the
discharge cycles, a system developed in our laboratories
was used that allowed to discharge the pack at a constant
current. Both boards had a sampling time of one second.
First, the SOC estimation capabilities of the system
where tested. A discharge cycle for a single cell, with 5A
discharge current, is shown in Fig. 6 together with the Figure 7. Cell voltage during charge and balancing of the pack
values of SOC estimated by the system. The current is not
shown, since the discharge was at a constant value. As it can
be seen in the figure, the cell started at full charge, 100%
SOC, which was correctly estimated based on the voltage
readings. However, by full discharge, the system presented
an error of proximately 5% in the SOC estimation, that was
corrected when the cut-off voltage was achieved.

Figure 8. Cell voltage in iteration five of charge and discharge

Since the pack started from an unbalanced state and the

Figure 6. SOC estimation vs. cell voltage
Secondly the balancing capabilities of the system are
analysed. In order to balance the pack, a 30 ohm equalising
resistor was put in parallel with the cells. This gave a
discharge current per cell of 10mA. In Fig. 7 the balance of
6 cells in parallel during a charge cycle, with a 5A charging
current, are shown. The cells were not equalised previous to
arranging the pack, this caused the differences in voltage
seen in the figure. This is especially notorious when the
cells are reaching full charge in the voltage exponential
region. When the cells with higher SOC were reaching the
full charge, its voltage starts to increase exponentially. If the
charging cycle is not stopped at this point, these cells will
overcharge, causing unnecessary stress and damage, which
could be irreversible. For our experiments the maximum
voltage threshold was 3.6V as specified by the manufacturer
of the Lithium batteries used for the tests. When this voltage
was reached the charging was stopped.
balancing current is limited, to fully balance the pack many
cycles with equalization are needed. After five charge and
discharge cycles, the charge cycle shown in Fig. 8 was
obtained. As it can be seen most cells are achieving full
charge at the same time, therefore with similar voltages.
However two cells, V1 and V2, still present lower voltages,
and therefore, lower charge levels. Due to the difference in
SOC of the cells, as was previously stated, many charge and
discharge cycles are needed to allow the system to balance
the batteries fully. This is due to the fact that the energy that
is removed by the batteries with higher SOC is limited, in
our case only 10mA. Finally in Fig. 9 the cells voltages of
the pack after many iterations of charging and discharging
the cells using the cell balancing module are shown. The
differences with Fig. 7 are clear, showing how the cells
were effectively balanced.

Figure 9. Cell voltage after many cycles of charge with balancing and
discharge
V. CONCLUSION
In this article a modular Battery Management System for
Electric and Hybrid vehicles was developed. The modularity
was achieved by divining the system in two parts, namely
the estimation and the balancing module, each one with
stackable boards that gave simplicity and allowed for re
usability. Thus, the only part of the State of charge (SOC)
estimation modules that varies are the sensors used for
measuring the electric current and the voltage of the battery
pack. On the balancing module, on the other hand, for
bigger battery packs it is only necessary to add more power
boards to measure the voltage and balance the new cells.
For both cases no hardware modification of the local
masters are needed since both are design to be able to
handle the changes.
The results presented in the preceding section showed the
ability of the proposed system to properly estimate the SOC
of the battery pack by means of the Coulomb counting
method. In addition the tests done in the laboratory showed
the ability of the balancing module to equalize a battery
pack. As future work the authors suggest the need for a
more complex estimation of the SOC. This is especially
critical when the system starts and there is no reliable initial
estimation. This estimation should also be done in the
battery pack used by the Electric Vehicles. In addition more
research is needed regarding the optimal equalization
current used for balancing the pack in order to speed up the
equalization process.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thanks the National Research
and Technology Council of Argentina (CONICET) for the
economic support of Eng. Ignacio Carlucho with a doctoral
fellowship
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