Slick Sheet: Project
Battelle Memorial Institute is developing an optical sensor to monitor the internal environment of lithium-ion (Li-Ion) batteries in real-time. Over time, crystalline structures known as dendrites can form within batteries and cause a short circuiting of the battery's electrodes. Because faults can originate in even the tiniest places within a battery, they are hard to detect with traditional sensors. Battelle is exploring a new, transformational method for continuous monitoring of operating Li-Ion batteries.

Slick Sheet: Project
Utah State University (USU) is developing electronic hardware and control software to create an advanced battery management system that actively maximizes the performance of each cell in a battery pack. No two battery cells are alike—they differ over their life-times in terms of charge and discharge rates, capacity, and temperature characteristics, among other things.

Slick Sheet: Project
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is developing an innovative battery design to more effectively regulate destructive isolated hot-spots that develop within a battery during use and eventually lead to degradation of the cells. Today's batteries are not fully equipped to monitor and regulate internal temperatures, which can negatively impact battery performance, life-time, and safety. ORNL's design would integrate efficient temperature control at each layer inside lithium ion (Li-Ion) battery cells.

Slick Sheet: Project
General Electric (GE) Global Research is developing low-cost, thin-film sensors that enable real-time mapping of temperature and surface pressure for each cell within a battery pack, which could help predict how and when batteries begin to fail. The thermal sensors within today's best battery packs are thick, expensive, and incapable of precisely assessing important factors like temperature and pressure within their cells.

Slick Sheet: Project
Gayle Technologies is developing a laser-guided, ultrasonic electric vehicle battery inspection system that would help gather precise diagnostic data on battery performance. The batteries used in hybrid vehicles are highly complex, requiring advanced management systems to maximize their performance. Gayle's laser-guided, ultrasonic system would allow for diagnosis of various aspects of the battery system, including inspection for defects during manufacturing and assembly, battery state-of-health, and flaws that develop from mechanical or chemical issues with the battery system during use.

Slick Sheet: Project
Ford Motor Company is developing a commercially viable battery tester with measurement precision that is significantly better than today's best battery testers. Improvements in the predictive ability of battery testers would enable significant reductions in the time and expense involved in electric vehicle technology validation. Unfortunately, the instrumental precision required to reliably predict performance of batteries after thousands of charge and discharge cycles does not exist in today's commercial systems.

Video: Awardee Profile
The Department of Defense (DoD) is one of the largest consumers of energy in the world—accounting for 1% of U.S. energy consumption. Given this impressive demand, the department actively pursues energy technologies to make the way it trains, moves and sustains U.S. forces more energy efficient and resilient

Impact Sheet
GETTING THE BEST FROM A BATTERY UPDATED:  JANUARY 30, 2017PROJECT TITLE: Control Enabling Solutions with Ultrathin Strain and Temperature Sensor System for Reduced Battery Life Cycle CostPROGRAM: Advanced Management and Protection of Energy Storage Devices (AMPED)AWARD: $3,128,285PROJECT TEAM: GE Global Research (Lead), University of Michigan, Ford Motor Company PROJECT TERM: January 2013 – December 2016

Impact Sheet
CELL-LEVEL CONTROL IN LARGE BATTERY PACKS UPDATED: SEPTEMBER 27, 2016PROJECT TITLE: Robust Cell-level Modeling and Control of Large Battery PacksPROGRAM: Advanced Management and Protection of Energy Storage Devices (AMPED)AWARD: $3,968,555PROJECT TEAM: Utah State University (Lead); University of Colorado, Boulder; University of Colorado, Colorado Springs; National Renewable Energy Laboratory; Ford Motor Company

Impact Sheet
ADVANCED SENSORS FOR EFFECTIVE BATTERY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS UPDATED: FEBRUARY 24, 2016 PROJECT TITLES: Smart Embedded Network of Sensors with Optical Readout (SENSOR)PROGRAM: AMPEDAWARD: $4,017,132PROJECT TEAM: Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) (Lead); LG Chem Power, Inc.PROJECT TERM: October 2012 – September 2015