Keynote: Establishing Model-Based Systems Engineering as a Core Electric Vehicle Design Process

Electric vehicle systems are much more complex compared to IC engine-based vehicles, due to the larger number or electronically controlled power components and the expectation of seamless integration with infotainment and connectivity systems. An integrated systems engineering approach, transcending the six dimensions of integration—mechanical, electrical, signal, control, heat transfer, and mass transfer—is needed to efficiently integrate the various components in an electric vehicle so that vehicle reliability, performance targets, and program timelines are met. Rigorous breaking down of system requirements to component requirements, decoupling of component requirements, and robust test case generation to test these requirements are three key elements of an effective system engineering process. Such a process will enable different engineering teams to pursue their designs in parallel with each other while avoiding costly mistakes due to integration errors as the prototypes are built. Mathematical modeling of the system components, their requirements, and the system control strategy in an integrated manner would best serve this. However, to fully utilize the benefits of model-based systems engineering, this process must be fully integrated into the overall vehicle engineering process.