Development of a Hydrogen Fuel Cell Prototype Vehicle Supported by Artificial Intelligence for Green Urban Transport

Abstract

In the automotive sector, the zero emissions area has been dominated by battery electric vehicles. However, prospective users cite charging times, large batteries, and the deployment of charging stations as a counter-argument. Hydrogen will offer a solution to these areas, in the future. This research focuses on the development of a prototype three-wheeled vehicle that is named Neumann H2. It integrates state-of-the-art energy storage systems, demonstrating the benefits of solar-, battery-, and hydrogen-powered drives. Of crucial importance for the R&D platform is the system’s ability to record its internal states in a time-synchronous format, providing valuable data for researchers and developers. Given that the platform is equipped with the ROS2 Open-Source interface, the data are recorded in a standardized format. Energy management is supported by artificial intelligence of the “Reinforcement Learning” type, which selects the optimal energy source for operation based on different layers of high-fidelity maps. In addition to powertrain control, the vehicle also uses artificial intelligence to detect the environment. The vehicle’s environment-sensing system is essentially designed to detect, distinguish, and select environmental elements through image segmentation using camera images and then to provide feedback to the user via displays.