Expert Systems With Applications 229 (2023) 120444

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Expert Systems With Applications

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/eswa

Digital twin for electric vehicle battery management with incremental

learning
Naga Durga Krishna Mohan Eaty, Priyanka Bagade ∗
Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, India

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: The current Industry 4.0 revolution promotes the use of cyber–physical systems to enhance manufacturing
Digital Twin and other industrial processes via automation, real-time analysis, etc. Data communication between individual
SoH (State of Health) systems plays an important role in this revolution’s success. As defined by researchers, Digital Twin is the digital
SoC (State of Charge)
representation of a physical system that enables predictive maintenance. Due to the increase in environmental
Continual learning
pollution, battery-powered electric vehicles (EVs) are regarded as the urgent solution to internal combustion
Internet of things
Cloud computing
engines in the transportation business, despite obstacles such as safety concerns and range estimation. State
Microsoft Azure of Health (SoH) and State of Charge (SoC) are two battery metrics that, when precisely anticipated, permit
safer and longer battery use. Predicting these parameters online is computationally and financially expensive.
Alternately, some of these factors could be predicted in the cloud rather than on the vehicle, hence cutting
costs. Consequently, the EV business is one example where cloud-to-vehicle data connection saves total costs.
A digital twin for an EV battery would aid in the estimate of battery parameters for predictive maintenance.
This paper presents a Digital Twin paradigm for EV battery management in which SoH is predicted in the
cloud and SoC is estimated on-vehicle. A continuous learning method is also proposed for forecasting SoH,
whereas the Kalman filter is used to estimate SoC. The proposed framework predicts the SoH with a mean
square error of 0.022.

1. Introduction
In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has demonstrated its
influence in a variety of engineering applications, including healthcare,
autonomous vehicles, and robots, among others. Due to the rapid
changes in global environmental circumstances caused by the pro-
duction of hazardous gases and the increase in the amount of CO2 ,
an electric vehicle is seen as an alternative to internal combustion
engines (ICEs) to counter these emissions Lithium-ion batteries are
commonly utilized in electric vehicles due to their high energy density,
low maintenance requirements, and extended lifespans (Ren, Ma, &
Cong, 2015). EVs reduce pollution, however they have downsides like
range anxiety and electrical safety risks. These drawbacks are the
primary impediment to a quicker transition to electric automobiles. The
challenge of predicting the vehicle’s range can be resolved by precisely
assessing the remaining battery capacity. SoC measures the remaining
battery capacity. Therefore, a correct estimation of SoC would assist
drivers to have faith in the estimated range. By actively monitoring
temperatures and doing predictive maintenance, it is possible to pre-
vent overheating and short-circuiting. The overuse of batteries can be
avoided by checking the health of the batteries. SoH is the parameter
used to show the present battery’s health; it aids in avoiding prolonged
usage and promotes improved battery recycling. In general, the battery
of an electric vehicle should be discarded and its depreciation can take
4 − 5 years (depending on battery usage style) (Smith et al., 2017). The
SoH and SoC parameters are currently estimated using electrochemical
and electrical circuit-based methods (Lin, Tang, & Wang, 2015). These
methods involve precise battery modeling and intensive computations.
SoH estimation is more computationally intensive than SoC estimation,
and SoC estimation should be real-time because range predictions need
it. The idea is to split the computational load between the cloud and
on-vehicle by transferring SoH predictions to the cloud and estimating
SoC on-vehicle and exchanging data between the cloud and vehicle at
service stations.
NASA defined the term ‘Digital Twin’ to describe a virtual rep-
resentation of a physical system that can be used for simulations,
analytics, and predictive maintenance (Tao, Zhang, Liu, & Nee, 2018),
which encourages data communication between systems in order to
improve some of the current industrial processes. A digital twin for
an electric vehicle would help to distribute the computational load,
perform predictive maintenance by monitoring parameters, provide

∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: krishnamohan0602@gmail.com (N.D.K.M. Eaty), pbagade@iitk.ac.in (P. Bagade).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2023.120444
Received 14 August 2022; Received in revised form 10 February 2023; Accepted 7 May 2023
Available online 24 May 2023
0957-4174/© 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
N.D.K.M. Eaty and P. Bagade
driver-specific feedback by analyzing their driving styles, and so on. In
our previous work (Eaty & Bagade, 2022), we proposed a Digital Twin
framework for electric vehicle batteries in which the digital model is
hosted in the cloud and the battery management system (BMS) acts
as the physical system. SoH is predicted on the cloud using a deep
learning model based on an incremental learning technique using data
transferred from the on-vehicle BMS, while SoC is estimated on the BMS
using a primitive coulomb counting technique. The data received from
the vehicle are preprocessed to produce time–frequency scalograms,
which are inputs to the SoH prediction algorithm. The issue with the
employed prediction algorithm for SoH is that it functions optimally
in situations with a small number of incremental data samples. In the
future, a number of vehicles will be deployed on the road, and the
amount of incremental data will be so large that few-shot learning will
be inefficient. So, there is a need for a fine-tuning approach that is
independent on the amount of incremental data available. The issue
with the coulomb counting algorithm used for SoC estimation is that
it is extremely primitive, and estimation errors accumulate over time,
causing the estimate to deviate significantly from the actual (Eaty &
Bagade, 2022).
In this paper, we extend our previous work (Eaty & Bagade, 2022)
to address the shortcomings of SoH prediction and SoC estimation
algorithms. We propose a continual learning approach for SoH predic-
tion that is independent of the amount of incremental data available.
This approach is inspired by transfer learning and fine-tunes the base
model by creating a fine-tuning sample with incremental and base
data samples from reservoir sampling. This helps to combat the two
primary issues associated with transfer learning, namely over-fitting
and catastrophic forgetting. We also propose a Kalman filter technique
for SoC estimation that uses a combination of coulomb counting and
open-circuit voltage methods to provide a close estimate of the actual
value. In this work, we also describe the implementation of the digital
twin, which, upon receiving new data, performs continuous learning on
the cloud, updates the cloud-based model to provide SoH predictions,
and communicates with the on-vehicle BMS.
The remaining paper is organized as follows: Section 2 talks about
the related work in this area, Section 3 explains the Proposed Frame-
work, Section 4 talks about Digital Twin implementation on Azure
cloud services, Section 5 details Experimental details and Results,
followed by Future Work and Conclusion.
2. Related work
Multiple definitions of Digital Twin have been proposed in various
studies. Some refer to it as the data and information links that connect
the virtual and physical systems (Singh et al., 2021). A digital twin
should consist of three primary components: (1) the physical system,
(2) virtual model, and (3) data interface between the physical and
virtual systems. In general, the following characteristics should be
possessed by any digital twin:
• Accurate Modeling: Accurate and generalized digital models aid
in simulating physical system scenarios that may occur.
• Self-evolving: The virtual model must be updated with new data
from the physical system operating in different conditions.
• Secure: Data privacy is a top priority, it is necessary to use proper
encryption techniques during data transfer and authentication
techniques for the data access (Singh et al., 2021).
The main advantages of building a digital twin with the above
characteristics are:
• Faster prototyping and re-designing: With the aid of simula-
tions, it would be easier and faster to make iterations during the
design phase helping reduce developing costs.
2
Expert Systems With Applications 229 (2023) 120444
• Predictive maintenance and diagnostics: Monitoring important
parameters will aid in determining the system’s condition and aid
in taking preventative measures. This can increase the system’s
overall service life and help troubleshoot faster.
• Accessibility: Digital twin provides remote access to the physical
system, enabling designers and operators to control from different
locations (Singh et al., 2021).
DT has multiple applications in the electric vehicle industry. Using
speed and time as inputs, Venkatesan, Manickavasagam, Tengenkai,
and Vijayalakshmi (2019) developed a DT for ML-based predictive
maintenance of an electric vehicle’s permanent magnet synchronous
motor. Rather than the current plug-and-play system, Shikata et al.
(2019) proposed that EVs be charged wirelessly. A DT for this ap-
plication will assist in simulating the reorientation of the vehicle by
utilizing the relative error between the current position and the de-
sired position for wireless charging. An example of cost-effective and
time-efficient DT for EVs is battery manufacturing, where health and
fault predictions of running batteries will help manufacturers regulate
production, thereby indirectly increasing profits and manufacturing
efficiency (Valdez Parra et al., 2021). Using DT for fault prediction
and root cause analysis also saves service technicians time diagnosing
the issue and reduces service costs (Kamran et al., 2022). DT for
autonomous vehicles assists in simulating a virtual car using techniques
such as 3-D rendering, virtual sensors, and artificial intelligence for the
diagnosis and prognosis of EV devices. Rassõlkin et al. (2022) proposed
a digital twin which monitors the performance of the electric vehicle
motor in which a virtual model is created and data is exchanged on
internet. This helps in analysis and simulations with less cost and time.
The above works validate that a digital twin for an electric vehicle that
monitors key parameters and reacts in case of faults enables prolonged
usage of the electric battery, thus extending the useful life of the
battery. Two of the key parameters that give the battery status are SoH
and SoC. These parameters help in understanding the current battery’s
health and the remaining charge in the current charging–discharging
cycle. So accurate prediction and monitoring of these parameters are
key for making better prognostics.
Three main techniques for predicting the SoH of batteries. One
technique uses the electrochemistry of the battery and predicts SoH
by solving partial differential equations (PDEs). These techniques are
termed Electrochemical models (EMs). The second type of model is
Equivalent Circuit based models (ECMs), these model the batteries
using electrical components like capacitors and resistors. These two
techniques can predict health accurately but require heavy computa-
tion (Lee & Lee, 2021). Also these models, once developed are frozen
and cannot be tuned on new data. Data-driven models are the third
technique that uses battery cycling data to build statistical or machine
learning-based models for predicting SoH. These models rely on data
and do not require extensive domain knowledge relating to batteries. By
simulating the battery with resistance, capacitors, and voltage sources,
Guo and Shen (2021) offered many ECM-based strategies. These models
do not account for the dynamic behavior of driving patterns, which
leads to less precise SoH prediction. The EM-based model captures the
dynamic behavior while considering the electrochemical phenomena
inside the battery (Bartlett, 2015). For the price of requiring extensive
computations to solve numerous partial differential equations for SoH
prediction, these models offer good accuracy. In low-compute hardware
typically found in EVs, electrochemical models are not practical.
By using machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques like
KNN (K-nearest neighbors), Logistic Regression, ANN (artificial neural
network) (Khumprom & Yodo, 2019), Random Forest, and Decision
Tree (Xu et al., 2018), numerous attempts have been made to predict
SoH (Jo, Jung, & Roh, 2021). These methods call for very little domain
expertise. LSTM-based models (Hong, Kang, Jeong, & Baek, 2020) have
also been employed for SoH prediction because the battery data is time-
series. These models provided optimistic outcomes and inspired the use
N.D.K.M. Eaty and P. Bagade Expert Systems With Applications 229 (2023) 120444

Table 1
Summary of recent works in predicting SoH for battery health prognostics.
Paper Title Model used
Wu, Zhang, and Chen Single layer feed forward neural
(2016) network
Zhou, Liu, Peng, and Combination of single SVR and
Peng (2012) online SVR,
Choi, Ryu, Park, and Feed forward neural network, CNN
Kim (2019) and LSTM are experimented. Model
is selected using RMSE and MAE
metrics
Xu, Peng, and Su Decision tree and random forest
(2018) models are experimented.
Bootstrapping technique is used for
training.
Salucci, Bakdi, Glad, 2 layer LSTM is experimented.
Vanem, and De Bin Another model experimented for
(2021) comparison with LSTM is a statistical
model (a variation of multivariate
linear regression)
Roman, Saxena, A pipeline is created in which four
Robu, Pecht, and models have experimented. Bayesian
Flynn (2021) ridge regression, Gaussian process
regression, ensemble of deep neural
networks,and random forest
Proposed approach Continual learning ML model.
Description Experimented dataset Accuracy
Voltage signal is sampled by charging the battery Not public dataset MAE 29.4218
in constant current mode to predict the remaining MSE 1.6184e+03
useful life. The training data does not consider the
variations in current during the charging and
discharging of the battery.
Voltage, current, temperature and impedance NASA battery dataset MAE: 0.020
without any sampling techniques are used as
inputs to the model. A Combined learning
approach (offline+online) is used to reduce the
computational complexity when the data is
updated. The dataset used for training does not
consider the rest times for the batteries and thus
fails to emulate the actual battery operating
conditions.
Multiple neural network models have NASA battery dataset RMSE: 0.0246
experimented. Inputs to the model are sampled MAE: 0.0159
voltage, current and temperature signals. All
experimented models are static and do not learn
on incremental data.
The models are trained with the time required for NASA battery dataset MSE for decision
charging, discharging, maximum temperature tree: 0.0006
during the process. The proposed models are static MSE for random
in nature. This work considers the peak values of forest: 0.0002
parameters but not the sudden change in them,
which is the main cause of battery degradation.
Initial voltage in charging cycle, change in voltage, NASA randomized RMSE: 0.015
duration of the cycle, maximum temperature, dataset
minimum temperature, the average value of
currents during the cycle are given as inputs for
training the model. LSTM model is good on
time-series data, but the model is static.
Set of more than 30 features based on the domain All open datasets RMSE: 0.027
knowledge and charging signals are derived and MAPE: 2.17
are passed to models and random forest performed
better. This work indirectly considers the stress on
the battery by sudden changes, but the proposed
model is not incremental.
Voltage, current and temperature signals are NASA randomized MSE: 0.022
sampled and CWT images are generated to train dataset MAE: 0.095
the ML model. The proposed model is a continual
learning model which does not depend on the size
of incremental data. The CWT images capture the
battery stress points during battery charging and
discharging to emulate real-life conditions.

of data-driven strategies. However, the lack of open-source data pre-
vents models from being adequately trained and assessed. Zhou et al.
(2012) suggested an Online-SVR-based technique that incrementally
learns from new data to assist the model generalize. These models,
however, were developed using datasets that rely on constant current
flow throughout charging and discharging, which is not compatible
with the situation that would exist in the actual world. Venugopal et al.
(2019) suggested an RNN-based method developed on a dataset that
discharges random currents to produce patterns near to those found
in the actual world. Another approach extracts the input signal’s time-
based properties to improve SoH predictability. To further improve SoH
prediction models, El-Dalahmeh et al. created time–frequency images
from the voltage data and carried out image analysis using deep learn-
ing (El-Dalahmeh, Al-Greer, El-Dalahmeh, Short, et al., 2020). Table 1
presents the overview of recent works in battery health prognostics
using data-driven techniques. Most of these models are trained on lab-
based battery data that does not emulate real-life conditions. Also the
currently available SOH estimation methods are static and cannot work
with small incremental data to provide timely feedback to the vehicle
owner. The proposed framework overcomes the issues of training the
ML model with less incremental data on digital twin with a continual
learning approach and randomized battery cycling data to emulate
real-life electric vehicle battery conditions on roads.
In this work, we created a digital twin of EVs that can collect
data from EVs operating in various conditions, predict battery health
and provide manufacturers with feedback. To provide timely feedback
about the battery’s health to the EV owner and manufacturer, it is
proposed to periodically transfer battery data to the cloud and perform
compute-intensive SoH predictions. The proposed method reduces the
on-vehicle compute requirements and the overall cost by obviating
the need to add additional computing power and memory to the
EV circuitry. The proposed prediction SoH method uses randomized
current, voltage, and temperature of the battery as inputs to depict
real-life settings, unlike state of the art methods. In addition, we
developed a Kalman filter method for the SoC estimation computed by
the on-vehicle BMS. The computed parameters SoH and SoC are then
exchanged via a cloud-based interconnection.
3. Proposed framework
In this section, we describe the proposed approach in detail. We
focus on the primary responsibilities of each component of the digital
twin, as well as the estimation and forecasting techniques for SoC and
SoH.

3
N.D.K.M. Eaty and P. Bagade
Fig. 1. Proposed framework for EV battery management using digital twin.
3.1. Battery digital twin
As mentioned in Section 1, for safer and longer use of electric
vehicles, it is necessary to estimate SoC and SoH parameters accurately.
SoC is used to make range predictions, therefore this value must be
computed in real-time. The battery health and remaining useful life
are determined by SoH. It can be computed remotely but requires an
accurate forecast because battery degradation is a slow process. The
current Industry 4.0 revolution emphasizes the use of the digital twin
concept to simplify and streamline operations. This work proposes a
Digital Twin framework for the management of EV batteries. Fig. 1
depicts the block diagram of the proposed Digital Twin framework for
batteries and briefly describes the functions of each component. In this
framework, the three primary DT components are (1) On-Vehicle BMS
(physical system), (2) Battery Digital Model (virtual system), and (3)
cloud-based interconnection (data link). The primary responsibility of
the on-vehicle BMS is to calculate the SoC in real-time and transmit
the current, voltage, and SoC information to the virtual model. The
cloud-hosted virtual model predicts SoH based on data collected from
the EV, performs analytics and transmits data back to the physical
system. By computing SoH in the cloud, we reduce the on-vehicle com-
pute demand, thereby indirectly reducing overall costs. By computing
SoH in the cloud, we reduce the on-vehicle compute demand. SoH
would not be a concern because it fluctuates very slowly. A cloud-
based interconnection connects the physical system and virtual model,
enabling data transfer. In this paper, we propose a continual learning
method for predicting SoH. This strategy employs incremental data
to train the model, enabling the model to generalize to all operating
conditions. SoC is estimated using Kalman filter techniques that employ
both Coulomb counting and Open Circuit Voltage (OCV) techniques for
precise estimations. SoC and SoH data are exchanged via cloud-based
interconnections so that the user can obtain information regarding both
parameters.
SoH represents a battery’s current capacity in proportion to its
rated capacity. SoH provides data on battery degradation and aids
in preventing accidents through predictive maintenance. Generally, a
battery is considered degraded when its current capacity falls between
70 − 80% of its initial capacity (Lin et al., 2015).
4
Expert Systems With Applications 229 (2023) 120444
3.1.1. Proposed data preprocessing approach - Wavelet transforms
This approach aims to capture the underlying transients from the
voltage and current signals using both time and frequency domains
instead of only time or frequency domains. Time–frequency methods
provide several specific domain features in both time and frequency
domains, thereby extracting more information from the input sig-
nal (Sejdić, Orović, & Stanković, 2018). Some techniques like Fourier
transformation can decompose a complex signal into multiple sinu-
soidal components, but these sinusoidal components are continuous
and not localized in space and time. For this reason, they are not that
effective in analyzing the transient behavior of the signal. A special
function called wavelets which are localized and exist for a particular
duration is better for studying the transients. One of the most popu-
lar techniques for conducting time–frequency analysis using wavelet
functions is continuous wavelet transform (CWT). After applying CWT
on the measured signal in 1-D is transformed into time–frequency
images, which contain information about energy concentrations at
different frequency components over time (Yan, Gao, & Chen, 2014).
The continuous wavelet transform is the convolution of the wavelet
basis function over the measured signal. Mathematically, CWT can be
represented using Eq. (1)
( )
1 𝑡−𝑏
𝜓𝑎,𝑏 (𝑡) = √ 𝜓 (1)
𝑎 𝑎
where 𝜓𝑎,𝑏 (𝑡) is called the child wavelet which is shifted in time by 𝑏 and
scaled in frequency by 𝑎. The wavelet function 𝜓(𝑡) is called the mother
wavelet. Two conditions that the wavelet function has to satisfy are
∞ ∞
∫−∞ 𝜓(𝑡)𝑑𝑡 = 0 and ∫−∞ |𝜓(𝑡)|2 𝑑𝑡 = 1 (Cai, Yang, Deng, Zhao, & Deng,
2018).
The child wavelets are convoluted over the measured signal to get
the wavelet coefficients. This is given by Eq. (2)
∞ ( )
1 𝑡−𝑏
𝑤(𝑎, 𝑏) = √ 𝑥(𝑡)𝜓 ∗ 𝑑𝑡 (2)
∫
𝑎 −∞ 𝑎
where 𝑤(𝑎, 𝑏) is the wavelet coefficient and 𝜓 ∗ means the complex
conjugate of the child wavelet functions.
Scalograms are the result of applying the CWT to the measured
signals (current and voltage). Scalograms are two-dimensional plots
of the CWT coefficients over time and frequency. The time–frequency
images generated by CWT from the measured signals (both current and
voltage) are inputs to the deep learning models for predicting the SoH
of the battery.
3.1.2. Proposed approach — continual learning approach
Continual learning algorithms are another class used to solve life-
long learning problems on incremental data. Using some sampling
techniques, continual learning algorithms create a memory buffer from
the already available training data and then incrementally train the
model on batches of data comprising samples from the memory buffer
and incremental samples. The problem of catastrophic forgetting is
addressed using a combination of samples from new data and memory
buffers. A proportional number of samples from both new data and the
memory buffer can prevent overfitting.
Reservoir sampling is used to generate a memory buffer from the
training data in this implementation. If the training set contains 𝑁
samples and we are required to create a memory buffer containing 𝑀
samples, then the probability of selection in random sampling will be
𝑀
. In this algorithm, the first 𝑀 entries are directly copied into a data
𝑁
array 𝐷𝑀 , and from 𝑀 + 1 to 𝑁 times, a random number is generated.
The entry corresponding to that random number in 𝐷𝑀 is replaced with
an entry in 𝐷𝑁 . Algorithm 1 is the pseudo-code representation of the
Reservoir sampling technique. The generated reservoir sample is used
for fine-tuning the base model using a continual learning algorithm.
Using the memory buffer sampled from training data, the model is
trained on 𝑘 size data batches upon receiving incremental data. These
batches of size 𝑘 are composed of a single instance of incremental
N.D.K.M. Eaty and P. Bagade Expert Systems With Applications 229 (2023) 120444

Algorithm 1: Reservoir Sampling from the battery, and the battery must rest before measurement, which
Input : Complete Data of size N and required sample size M is impossible in real-time. Due to their drawbacks, the two methods de-
Output: Sample of size M scribed above cannot be used independently. The Kalman filter method
1 Let array 𝐷𝑁 is complete data and array 𝐷𝑀 is sample computes estimates using the aforementioned techniques. The Kalman
2 for 𝑖 ← 1 to 𝑀 do filter assumes that the Gaussian distributions of the two preceding tech-
3 𝐷𝑀 [𝑖] = 𝐷𝑁 [𝑖] niques are independent. Estimates derived from combining these two
4 end will result in a new Gaussian distribution with a new mean and reduced
5 for 𝑖 ← 𝑀 + 1 to 𝑁 do variance. It is well known that Kalman filter approaches provide precise
6 j = randomNumber(0, N) measurements (Welch, Bishop, et al., 1995).
7 if 𝑗 ≤ 𝑀 then The Kalman filter method consists primarily of three steps: pre-
8 𝐷𝑀 [𝑗] = 𝐷𝑁 [𝑖] diction, measurement, and updating. Using these steps, the Kalman
9 end filter recursively generates a new estimate based on the previous and
10 end measured values. In the estimation of SoC using Kalman filter methods,
11 return 𝐷𝑀 the SoC-OCV mapping technique is regarded as the measurement step.
The coulomb counting step will be the prediction step, and the next
best estimate will be computed based on the previous estimate using
Algorithm 2: Continual Learning with Reservoir Sampling these two variables. The mathematical formula for the Kalman filter is:
Let the state estimate and estimate variance matrix be 𝑥𝑡−1 and 𝑃𝑡−1
Input : Incremental training data pushed into Blob Storage
at time 𝑡 − 1 given in Eq. (3) and (4). The state equations are problem
Output: Latest model after incremental training session
specific and can vary in a different problem setting
1 𝐷𝑀 ← 𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑜𝑖𝑟𝑆𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔(𝐷𝑁 , 𝑁, 𝑀)
[ ]
2 for (𝑥, 𝑦) in 𝐷𝑡 do 𝑆𝑜𝐶(%)
𝑥𝑡−1 = (3)
/* Create random batch of size k */ 𝐶𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡(𝐼)
3 𝐷𝑏 ← 𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑜𝑚𝑆𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒(𝐷𝑀 , 𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑘, 𝑀) [ 2 ]
𝜎 0
/* Mini-batch SGD */ 𝑃𝑡−1 = 𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒 2 (4)
0 𝜎𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒
4 𝜃 ← 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑖 − 𝑆𝐺𝐷(𝐷𝑏 , 𝜃, 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒)
/* Add new sample to train data */ Next in the prediction step, the change in 𝑆𝑜𝐶(%) is accounted for
5 𝐷𝑁 ← 𝐷𝑁 ∪ (𝑥, 𝑦) using the coulomb counting method, which is the charge taken out from
6 end the battery. This is represented as a transformation matrix 𝐹𝑡 given by
[ ]
𝛥𝑡
1 − 10800 × 100
𝐹𝑡 = (5)
0 1
data and 𝑘 − 1 randomly sampled data from the memory buffer. The The new state estimate 𝑥𝑡 and estimate variance 𝑃𝑡 after the predic-
model is trained using mini-batch Stochastic Gradient Descent (mini- tion step is given by
batch SGD) to update the model weights using a specific learning rate. [ ]
In mini-batch SGD gradients are computed on smaller batches instead 𝑆𝑜𝐶(%)
𝑥𝑡 = 𝐹𝑡
of the complete data sample. Finally, the new incremental data sample 𝐼
is pushed into the training data set that will be used for generating the [ 2 ]
𝜎 0
next reservoir sample. Algorithm 2 is the pseudo-code explanation of 𝑃𝑡 = 𝐹𝑡 𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒 2 𝐹𝑇
0 𝜎𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑡
the continual learning algorithm.
SoC is expressed as a proportion of the battery’s current capac- Next, in the measurement step, using the SoC-OCV mapping, the
ity to its capacity when fully charged. Therefore, SoC must be es- change in SoC is computed by multiplying the observation matrix with
timated in real-time in an EV to determine the vehicle’s remaining the state estimate. Here observation matrix would be an identity matrix
range. In addition, accurate range estimation would prevent roadside as we are not performing any manipulation on the measurements.
breakdowns. [ ]
1 0
𝐻̄ = (6)
0 1
3.1.3. Kalman filter approach [ ]
SoC can be estimated using primitive techniques like Coulomb 𝑆𝑜𝐶(𝑂𝐶𝑉 )
𝑦𝑡 = 𝐻̄ (7)
Counting and Open Circuit Voltage (OCV). The coulomb counting 𝐼
method calculates the amount of charge leaving or entering a battery
where 𝐻̄ is the observation matrix, and 𝑦𝑡 is the state measurement.
by integrating the current over time. SoC decreases due to the current
Also, we consider noise in measurements, and this is an input of how
drawn from the battery during discharging. During charging, current
much weight measurement is given than prediction while computing
flows into the battery, increasing its SoC.
the final estimate.
The coulomb counting method has a few problems: [ 2 ]
𝜎 0
𝑅̄ = 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑠 (8)
• The estimates depend on the initial SoC value. Incorrect initial- 0 2
𝜎𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑠
ization would lead to erroneous estimates.
• The current values measured by sensors can be erroneous, causing A low value in observation noise 𝑅̄ indicates that we assign more
a drift in estimates. weight to measurements than predictions. Finally, compute the next
• It does not account for self-discharging. Current sensors cannot best estimate by computing Kalman Gain, multiply it with residual, and
capture self-discharging. add it to the previous estimate.
The residual vector 𝑧𝑡 is given as the difference between the state
The open-circuit voltage is calculated using a look-up table, and measurement and state prediction.
a reference discharge/charge is performed to construct the SoC-OCV
̄ 𝑡
𝑧𝑡 = 𝑦𝑡 − 𝐻𝑥 (9)
mapping. Like the Coulomb counting method, the Kalman filter can
exhibit drift in estimations based on inaccurate measurements. In ad-
dition, to precisely measure the OCV, the load must be disconnected 𝑆𝑡 = ⟨𝐻|𝑃
̄ 𝑡 |𝐻̄ 𝑇 ⟩ + 𝑅̄ (10)

5
N.D.K.M. Eaty and P. Bagade
Fig. 2. Digital twin flow using azure technologies.
The Kalman gain is computed using the residual variance, observa-
tion, and prediction variance matrices are given by
𝐾𝑡 = 𝑃𝑡 𝐻̄ 𝑇 𝑆𝑡−1 (11)
Using Kalman gain, the final state estimates 𝑥𝑡 and state variance
matrices are updated as given in Eqs. (12) and (13)
𝑥𝑡 = 𝑥𝑡 + 𝐾𝑡 𝑧𝑡 (12)
𝑃𝑡 = (1 − 𝐾𝑡 )𝑃𝑡 (13)
The above steps are recursively applied to get the next best esti-
mates from the previous estimate.
4. Digital twin implementation on cloud
Digital twin consists of three primary elements: physical system, vir-
tual representation, and an interconnection between the physical and
virtual systems. The physical system collects sensor data and computes
required real-time quantities for smooth operation. The physical system
uses the connection interface to transmit sensor data to the cloud.
This data is utilized by the digital/virtual system for data analytics,
predictive maintenance, and simulations to comprehend the physical
system. In the case of a digital twin for an EV battery, the physical
system will be the central ECU (electronic control unit), which collects
battery data from the on-vehicle BMS and vehicle information such
as torque, speed, etc., from controllers via the CAN (controller area
network) communication protocol. From the perspective of a battery,
the primary function of the physical system is to estimate the SoC, as
the SoC is an important parameter that provides an estimate of the
remaining range. The cloud-hosted digital representation is a battery
model that performs predictive analysis, such as predicting the battery’s
SoH, using data from the physical system (see Fig. 2).
In this work, a digital twin for an EV battery is developed in which
the physical system is implemented on Raspberry Pi, and the digital
model is hosted on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. The digital
representation is built using several modules from the Azure cloud
platform, which are briefed below:
• Azure Blob Storage: Microsoft’s storage service for storing mas-
sive amounts of unstructured data. Blob storage enables the cre-
ation of data lakes, which can aid in data analytics.
• Azure Logic Apps: A PaaS (Platform as a Service) tool capable
of connecting multiple applications and services. The primary
function is to create automated workflows that do not require
human intervention to initiate processes upon the occurrence of
an event.
• Azure ML Workspace: A cloud-based machine learning service
that enables the creation of datasets, registration of different
model versions, and the execution of experiments using cloud
computing resources.
• Azure DevOps: A Microsoft service that enables development
teams to collaborate and create pipelines that execute a sequence
of events on Azure compute resources. It enables developers
to build continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD)
pipelines and deploy cloud-based applications.
6
Expert Systems With Applications 229 (2023) 120444
A client–server architecture is designed with the server hosting the
web application and the Vehicle BMS as the client (implemented on
Raspberry Pi). Voltage, current signals, and SoC data are transmitted
to the cloud via a web-socket connection between the server and the
client.
Algorithm 3: Azure Session Training Pipeline
Input : Incremental training data pushed into Blob Storage
Output: Latest model after incremental training session
1 Pull the session training code from the GitHub repository to the
Azure virtual machine.
2 Install the required Python version.
3 Install required packages Eg:- Azure CLI, Pytorch.
4 Download the latest model from Azure ML workspace.
5 Download new incremental data from Azure blob storage.
6 Register the updated model on ML workspace.
Finally, a web application is developed to display the information to
administrators and end users. The web application displays the number
of healthy batteries, the health of a specific battery (SoH), and the SoC
data sent by the on-vehicle BMS.
4.1. Continual learning on digital twin
Initially, the base model will be trained using battery testers and
indoor experimentation data. The base model is then registered on
Azure ML workspace, which will be used to make predictions. In a
real-world scenario, the incremental battery data running in different
operating conditions can be acquired from service centers or vehicles by
connecting to the internet. This incremental training data is pushed into
Azure blob storage and stored as containers. A continuous integration/
continuous deployment(CI/CD) pipeline described in Algorithm 3 is
developed to conduct incremental training on newer data. The pipeline
is termed CI/CD because even when the model is deployed, the model
gets updated on newer data. Soon after the update, the model gets
instantaneously deployed to make predictions. The main functionality
of the pipeline is to download data from blob storage, fetch the latest
model from the Azure ML workspace, train the fetched model on the
incremental data, and update the trained model back to the azure ml
workspace. On getting new data into blob storage, azure logic apps are
used to trigger the DevOps pipeline to start the incremental training
session. Azure logic apps periodically check for updates in the blob
storage and generate triggers on noticing differences in blob storage
content. After the incremental training session, further battery health
predictions are made using the updated model. This helps generalize
the model even after the model is deployed to make predictions.
5. Experimental setup & results discussion
5.1. Dataset description
Among several available battery cycling datasets, not all are close
to practical operating conditions because the batteries are cycled with
constant charging/discharging currents. In realistic scenarios, the EV
N.D.K.M. Eaty and P. Bagade
Fig. 3. Capacity degradation pattern of two battery sets cycles in different operating
conditions.
battery undergoes random cycling with varying currents, as the current
drawn from the battery depends on accelerations and decelerations.
The NASA Prognostics Center for Excellence compiled a random battery
dataset by cycling Lithium-ion (Li-ion) cells at various operating tem-
peratures (Bole, Kulkarni, & Daigle, 2014). This dataset is the closest
publicly accessible representation of a real-world operational scenario.
Fig. 3 shows the capacity degradation curves of eight 2Ah Li-
ion cells cycled with random currents up to 4.5 A. The batteries are
discharged by drawing random currents for 5 min with a rest time
of 1 s between changing currents, and they are charged by drawing
random currents until full charge or for a period of 30 min to 3 h.
After 50 random cycles, a 2A reference cycle is performed on the
battery parameters with a common ground. In the pre-processing step,
scalograms are generated using the continuous wavelet transform and
passed as inputs to the continuous learning model.
5.2. State of Health (SoH) prediction results
In this experiment, RW1, RW2, RW9, and RW10 batteries are con-
sidered available battery data before deploying the model and are
referred to as base data. These batteries’ information is used to pre-train
the base model. The base model is a compressed Alexnet (Krizhevsky,
Sutskever, & Hinton, 2012) with a fully connected layer converted to a
regression layer without pre-trained weights. We use the battery data
of RW7 as the incremental battery data to perform continuous learning.
The RW8 and RW11 batteries are used as test data to evaluate the
model’s performance after continuous learning.
The RW7 battery data has been partitioned into five sections to
simulate continuous learning. Base data is used to generate a random
memory buffer. For each sample in the incremental data, an incremen-
tal sample is generated using the reservoir sampling method described
in Section 3.1.2. Mini-batch SGD is used to fine-tune the model using
this sample. In mini-batch SGD, the gradient is computed on fixed-
size batches of the entire incremental sample. Five partitions of the
RW7 data are utilized for continuous learning. Two metrics are used
to evaluate the model’s performance: mean square error (MSE) and
mean absolute percentage error (MAPE). Table 2 shows the MSE and
MAPE values of the model performance evaluated on all batteries after
each session of continual learning. The model generalizes after every
session of fine-tuning as the error values of some batteries slightly
increased, whereas the error values decreased for some batteries. The
error values of RW1 initially decreased slightly after the first two
sessions, but in the third session, the error values increased. This is
because, during fine-tuning, the model learns a pattern to fit samples
from the reservoir sample, including samples from RW7 and random
samples from base data, and in session 3 there might not be any samples
from RW1. This randomness is the only uncertainty in the approach, but
7
Expert Systems With Applications 229 (2023) 120444
after a few sessions, the model is generalized as the reservoir samples
contain data from all batteries in some session or other. Fig. 4 shows
the model’s actual versus SoH prediction curves after five sessions of
continual learning with reservoir sampling. From the images and error
values it can be concluded, the model can trace most of the actual
SoH degradation patterns, and it can be concluded that the model can
generalize on the battery data.
5.3. State of Charge (SoC) estimation results
Fig. 5 shows the change in SoC of battery RW1 during the initial
few charging and discharging cycles. In the first discharge cycle, the
SoC of the battery is 100% and gradually decreases to 45%. In the
next cycle, the battery SoC suddenly moves to close to 93%, this
is because that particular cycle corresponds to charging. Since the
charging and discharging cycles are completely random, the fall of SoC
during discharge is not uniform. Sometimes, the gradient of the fall is
high, and some other times it is low. Also, the battery is not charged
or discharged to the same SoC levels since the currents drawn from
the batteries are random, as mentioned in the dataset description (Bole
et al., 2014).
6. Pipeline timelines
Fig. 6 shows the time taken by each step in the incremental training
pipeline, from checking out the code to registering the updated model
back onto the Azure ML workspace. The time taken for executing the
complete pipeline is around 7 − 8 min. The majority of this time was
contributed by the bash script that installs the required packages. The
time taken for performing session training is just around 1.5 min. From
these timelines, we can infer that the time required for execution is
much less if we send data at a period of, say 6 months. This is also
because of the heavy computing power that is available on the cloud.
Further, the time can be reduced by having a fixed compute and pre-
installing all the requirements one time then the time required would
be around 3 − 4 min which is a considerable reduction.
7. Conclusion and future work
In this work, a Digital Twin framework for electric vehicle batteries
to estimate the battery capacity and predict battery health is developed.
A digital twin is the virtual modeling of the physical system. The
physical system, i.e., the on-vehicle BMS, collects data from sensors,
estimates the real-time parameter State of Charge, and sends the data
to the cloud. The digital model hosted on the Microsoft Azure platform
uses this information to build a model to predict the SoH. We also
proposed a new continual learning approach with experience replay for
SOH estimation, in which the deep learning network is incrementally
fine-tuned on new data. The inputs to the model are time–frequency
scalograms generated by CWT transform of voltages and current sig-
nals. First base training is performed on the readily available data
covering most operating scenarios but not all. The model then is incre-
mentally trained on newer data as and when they come. The proposed
framework is experimented on NASA randomized battery, and after five
incremental training sessions, an MSE of 0.022 is achieved on RW11.
The SoC, which needs to be computed in real-time for range estimation,
can be estimated using Coulomb counting or direct circuit voltage
methods. These have drawbacks and will account for significant losses
in the long run. Kalman filter uses both coulomb counting and voltage-
based techniques to give the best estimate. Finally, the computed SoC
and SoH are exchanged between cloud and vehicle, completing the
digital twin.
The current implementation does not gather real-world data from
the vehicles running in different conditions, which should be the
case. To simulate this, we divided complete data into partitions. As
part of future work, we will install these frameworks in on-vehicle
N.D.K.M. Eaty and P. Bagade Expert Systems With Applications 229 (2023) 120444

Fig. 4. SoH actual and prediction curves produced after five sessions of continual learning using RW7 data. Base training is performed using RW1, 2, 9, and 10. RW8, and 11
are used for testing.

Table 2
Results of SoH estimation produced after five sessions of incremental training using RW7 data. Base training is performed using RW1, 2, 9, and 10. RW8, and 11 are used for
testing.
Battery name Base training Session 1 Session 2 Session 3 Session 4 Session 5
MSE MAPE (%) MSE MAPE (%) MSE MAPE (%) MSE MAPE (%) MSE MAPE (%) MSE MAPE (%)
RW1 0.01 5.05 0.009 5 0.009 5.03 0.0089 5.07 0.0089 5.13 0.012 5.75
RW2 0.019 7.49 0.019 7.52 0.017 7.32 0.019 7.63 0.017 7.16 0.014 6.37
RW7 0.065 13.7 0.059 13.1 0.058 12.98 0.059 13.19 0.056 12.86 0.051 12.35
RW8 0.05 11.81 0.05 12.43 0.048 12.22 0.05 12.5 0.047 12.02 0.04 11.2
RW9 0.016 8.65 0.015 8.6 0.015 8.48 0.016 8.77 0.015 8.47 0.013 7.92
RW10 0.013 7.16 0.013 7.14 0.013 7.1 0.013 7.18 0.013 7.08 0.013 7.14
RW11 0.024 9.69 0.023 9.67 0.023 9.64 0.023 9.64 0.022 9.57 0.023 9.65

Fig. 5. SoC estimation for RW1 during the first few discharging/charging cycles.
BMS and collect data from on-road vehicles. We will use driving
pattern information to predict SoH values for individual users. We will
implement additional functionalities such as analytics and driver as-
sistance systems on the digital twin in order to provide the user
with direct feedback and suggestions for altering his driving style in
order to extend the battery life. In addition, manufacturer assistance
will be developed to provide manufacturers with data on the number
of batteries that degrade within a given time period, allowing them
to regulate production quantities. The disadvantage of the continual
learning approach for SoH prediction is the need to store previously
viewed data, which can be costly depending on the size of the data, an
alternative can be devised for storing the data. Current SoC estimation
requires matrix inversion, which is expensive and of order 𝑂(𝑛3 );
therefore, a less expensive method would further reduce the overall cost
and hardware requirement. In the near future, we intend to develop a
less complicated technique for SoC estimations.

8
N.D.K.M. Eaty and P. Bagade
Fig. 6. Incremental training pipeline timing.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Naga Durga Krishna Mohan Eaty: Conceptualization, Methodol-
ogy, Writing – original draft. Priyanka Bagade: Writing – review and
editing, Supervision.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to
influence the work reported in this paper.
Data availability
Public dataset has been used for the analysis
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