Areas of expertise

  • Electric and Hybrid Vehicles
  • Mechatronics & Advanced Controls
  • Vehicle Engineering & Mobility

Background

Dr Daniel Auger is Reader in Electrification, Automation and Control in Cranfield University's Advanced Vehicle Engineering Centre. 

His research looks at ways to exploit estimation and control techniques in vehicle and energy storage applications, particularly in the context of fast model calibration and battery management.  Daniel uses carefully designed hardware-in-the-loop experiments to replicate real-world battery behaviours early in a product lifecycle, and then uses formal system identification techniques, control-oriented estimation techniques and computer science to produce models and state estimation software for incorporation in real-time battery management systems.

Daniel is currently working on the application of reduced-order physics-based models for fast model calibration and estimation, control of hybrid battery systems, electrical and module/pack-level thermal modelling and state estimation, and prognostic/diagnostic techniques for predicting and assessing battery health and remaining useful life.

Daniel teaches on the motorsport and automotive MSc programme, and is module lead for Automotive Control and Simulation and Advanced Control and Optimisation.

Before joining Cranfield, he worked in senior control engineering roles in BAE Systems and MathWorks Consulting Services. He has MEng and PhD degrees from Cambridge and is a chartered engineer, an IET Fellow and an IEEE Senior Member; he holds the FHEA university teaching qualification.

Research opportunities

Cranfield advertises post-doctoral research opportunities at https://tinyurl.com/Cranfield-Postdoc-Jobs-SATM.  Candidates wishing to work under Daniel's supervision with their own funding, e.g. a Marie Skłodowska Curie fellowship, are welcome, and encouraged to get in touch directly.

Daniel is always happy to hear from prospective PhD students in Automotive Battery Management and State Estimation, Applications of Control Theory in Hybrid and Electric Vehicles, and Applications of Control Theory in Connected and Autonomous Vehicles

To apply, simply fill in our online application form at https://tinyurl.com/PhD-in-Transport-Systems, mentioning your preferred supervisor's name on the form.  (Advanced Vehicle Engineering is part of our Transport Systems 'theme', so don't worry if the application form has this as the subject area).  A successful PhD requires enthusiasm and self-motivation - it's important that you can come up with ideas for a research project, and that this is well presented in your application form.

Students are normally expected to identify their own source of funding, e.g. an employer or a nationally-funded scholarship.  From time to time, we have funding for PhD scholarships - we always advertise these at https://tinyurl.com/Transport-Systems-PhD-Funding.

A PhD is a great experience.  It's difficult at times, but ultimately very rewarding.  If you think it might be right for you, and you think you have identified Daniel as the right supervisor, please do apply, and good luck with your application.

Current activities

Innovate UK Project (10017550).  BRAD: Bellerophon Rapid Assembly and Disassembly, £115,495 (Cranfield part).  Feb 22 - Apr 23.  Cranfield Lead.  Co-I Dr A Fotouhi.

Innovate UK Project (83328): NGB: NexGen Battery, £120,424 (Cranfield part).  Jan 22 - Dec 23.  Cranfield Lead Dr A Fotouhi.  Co-I Dr DJ Auger

Innovate UK Project (78920).  SLB4ComEU: Second-Life Batteries for Commercial End-Use, £99,930 (Cranfield part).  Sep 20 - Jul 21.  Cranfield Lead Dr C Long.  Co-Is Dr D Auger, Dr J Luo.

Horizon 2020 Project (814471) LISA: Lithium Sulfur for Safe Road Vehicle Electrification, EUR 562,513 (Cranfield part), Jan 19 to Dec 2022. Cranfield Lead.  Co-Is Dr A Fotouhi, Prof J Brighton.

Innovate UK Project (48727) Chimera: an intelligent battery management architecture for next-generation electric vehicle batteries using multiple cell chemistries, £82,558 (Cranfield part), Jun 20 - Nov 21.  Cranfield Lead. Co-I Dr A Fotouhi.

Innovate UK Project (TS/R013780/1) LiS:FAB - Lithium Sulfur: Future Automotive Battery (Advanced State Estimation and Management Algorithms, £859,504 (Cranfield part), Apr 18 to Sep 21.  Cranfield Lead.  Co-Is Dr A Fotouhi, Prof J Brighton.

Innovate UK Project (105297) Developing the Isothermal Control Platform (ICP) as the Basis of New Proposed Standards for the Testing of Lithium Batteries for Use in Electric Vehicles, £82,205 (Cranfield part), Jul 19 - Jun 21.  Cranfield Lead. Co-I Dr A Fotouhi.

Horizon 2020 Project (666157) ALISE: Advanced Lithium Sulfur Battery for xEV, EUR 111,717 (Cranfield part), Mar 18 - May 2019.  Cranfield Lead.   Co-I Dr A Fotouhi.

ATI Project (TS/P003818/1) Zephyr Innovation Programme (ZIP) - development and integration of novel lithium-sulfur battery management and state estimation algorithms for UAVs, £245,135, May 17 - Dec 18.  Cranfield Lead.  Co-Is Dr S Longo, Dr A Fotouhi.

Innovate UK Project (TS/P012000/1) HumanDRIVE, £1,199,941, Jan 17 - Dec 19, Cranfield Leads Prof A Tsourdos, Prof JL Brighton, Co-Is Dr A Savvaris, Prof R Zbikowski, Dr DJ Auger, Dr S Longo, Dr A Soltani.

EPSRC Project (EP/N012089/1) TASCC: Driver-cognition-oriented optimal control authority shifting for adaptive automated driving (CogShift), £1,587,193, Dec 15 - Dec 19, PI Prof JL Brighton, Co-Is Prof N Lavie, Dr DJ Auger, Dr Y Zhao.

EPSRC Project (EP/L505286/1) Revolutionary Electric Vehicle Battery (REVB) - design and integration of novel state estimation/control algorithms & system optimisation techniques, £468,617, Feb 14 - Apr 17, Cranfield Lead Dr D Auger, Co-I Dr S Longo.

EPSRC Project (EP/I038586/1) Developing FUTURE Vehicles (Fundamental Understanding of Technologies for Ultra Reduced Emission Vehicles), £3,012,029, [Jan 13] - May 16, PI Prof R Thring, Co-Is Prof Q Zhong, Prof DA Stone, Prof K Burnham, Prof NP Brandon, Prof D Howey, Dr T Larkowski, Dr D J Auger, Dr S Longo, Dr M Sumislawska, Prof M McCulloch, Professor R Martinez-Botas, Dr J Marco, Dr G Offer, Prof F Assadian.

Clients

Current and recent grants have been provided by Innovate UK, The European Commission, EPSRC and the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI).

Current and recent collaborators include OXIS Energy, Chimera Energy, The LEITAT Technological Center and Thermal Hazard Technologies.

    Publications

    Articles In Journals

    Conference Papers

    Books