The “sticker” mileage of a car is calculated using a standard drive cycle that typically is not representative of the driving style of the current driver. This is a problem because automotive companies develop their engine and drive train management systems to meet the EPA emission demands based on the standard drive cycles. In the past year, the EPA has changed the test conditions for vehicles in order to better estimate the average driver and real-world emissions and gas mileage for any vehicle. Although this change gives a better estimate of mileage to the customer, it does not cure the underlying problem which is the variation in driving style and behavior from person to person and for different combinations of driver and vehicle.

This project aims at minimizing the impact of driver behavior and style by adapting the control system of the hybrid electric vehicle to the driver in real time. Markov Decision Process (MDP) is used to create an intelligent powertrain controller that is presented with a system state and a set of actions to choose from. Once an action is chosen, the intelligent controller is rewarded and another state is presented. The goal of the controller is to maximize its rewards through the actions it chooses, each time taking into consideration the probability of a positive reward for each action based on previous experience.

Once the project is complete, the intelligent control system should be able to extract maximum fuel efficiency from any drive cycle that is created while the system is running. It should also be able to achieve up to 80 percent better fuel efficiency compared to the conventional control systems.

Antonis I. Antoniou was born in Lefkosia, Cyprus in 1982. After high school, he served in the Cyprus National Guard for two years as a cadet officer and a second lieutenant. In 2002, he moved to the United States and received his B.S. degree in computer engineering in 2006 from Illinois Institute of Technology. He is now pursuing a master’s degree in electrical engineering at IIT while researching intelligent control strategies for hybrid electric vehicles in Dr. Emadi’s Power Electronics and Motor Drives Lab.

Antoniou served as the team leader of IIT’s Formula Hybrid Race Team in 2008, helping them win third place in the International Formula Hybrid Competition in New Hampshire. When away from school, he is an avid traveler with an affinity for historically rich locations, environmental beauty, architecture, fine cuisine, and breweries. He speaks both Greek and English fluently. He also plays and watches football often, both the European and American versions. After receiving his master’s degree, Antoniou plans to work in industry and eventually pursue a doctorate degree in biomedical engineering and neural prostheses or computer engineering. He is a member of IEEE and Eta Kappa Nu, the electrical and computer engineering honor society.