Modular Drive Architecture for Software-defined Vehicles Enabled by Power-packet-based Sensorless Control

TL;DR

This paper presents a modular drive architecture for software-defined vehicles that uses power packet dispatching and sensorless control to reduce wiring complexity and enable standardized, plug-and-play electrified vehicle components.

Contribution

It introduces a sensorless control method and a power packet-based architecture that decouples hardware and software in vehicle drives, enhancing standardization and flexibility.

Findings

Reduces wiring complexity in drive modules.

Enables sensorless control estimating motor states from vehicle-side measurements.

Supports fully standardized, plug-and-play vehicle drive components.

Abstract

The transition toward software-defined vehicles requires standardization and modularization of hardware decoupled from software, along with centralized electrical/electronic architectures. While electrified drive units, such as integrated in-wheel drives, are expected to realize the hardware standardization and unprecedented flexibility in vehicle design, their implementation remains constrained by complex signal wiring between the module and the vehicle body and by control units decentralized across them. This paper proposes a modular drive architecture that achieves complete hardware-software separation by leveraging the power packet dispatching system. We introduce a sensorless control method that estimates motor internal states, specifically winding current and rotor angle, solely from physical quantities measured on the vehicle side. This completely eliminates the need for physical sensors in the drive module, reducing it to a passive actuator governed by the vehicle-side power system via a standardized packet protocol. The proposed architecture significantly reduces wiring complexity and centralizes control logic, advancing fully standardized, plug-and-play platforms for next-generation electrified mobility.