Software-Defined Battery Systems: A Primer
Everything is going electric. We’re not going back to steam or fossil fuels. The main driver of electrification is simple: It’s a better way to build high-value products. In fact, the oil and gas industry is leading the development of electric vehicles (EVs).
What do electrification applications have in common?
They all need batteries.
We aren’t talking about double-As or lead-acid batteries from the old days. Only lithium-based batteries can hold the energy required to power demanding commercial and industrial applications.
Here’s a fact not many people know:
Batteries may be everywhere. But it actually takes hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars and months or even years to develop a high-performance custom battery solution. Also, companies must hire teams of skilled engineers with expert knowledge in a highly sought-after market to conduct R&D.
The high cost and lengthy development cycle put a damper on businesses, which are already under immense pressure to do things faster and cheaper. Moreover, companies have no choice but to divert resources from product innovation to battery pack development.
Batteries are perceived as a hidden commodity component, a “necessary evil” that doesn’t help product companies differentiate their brands in a competitive market. Despite the costs and safety concerns, most companies do it over and over — building custom battery packs for their products and applications because there is no other practical way.
It’s time to stop reinventing the wheel.
The tipping point for electrification will come with a universal, modular, software-defined battery system that can adapt to any product size, shape, voltage, operating environment, and application.
To define these commonalities and design a universal solution, we examined challenges associated with product development and electrification and invented the Tanktwo Battery Operating System (TBOS).
Here’s a simplified analogy to illustrate the profound changes the battery operating system will bring:
When you bought a personal computer in 1982, you’d expect to spend north of $10k in today's money on the hardware, like the CPU, memory, hard drive, display, model-M keyboard, etc. The operating system and some basic software came at no extra charge.
Fast forward 30 years. IT hardware manufacturing is a cutthroat business exclusive to Asia, and virtually all of the profit in the industry comes from software and services.
Today, you buy an expensive device that comes with or contains a battery pack. You pay for the hardware — the lithium, the can, the wires, the plastic packaging, etc. Meanwhile, the battery management system (aka, the software) is doing just the bare minimum to prevent the device from bursting into flames. It’s like 1982 all over again for battery technologies.
But thanks to Moore’s law, technologies are developing faster today. We don’t have to wait 20 years for the change.
In fact, a change in attitude and value is happening. The focus of electrification will shift from materials and packaging to a data- and algorithm-driven environment where the software will optimize the value of the hardware.
Software-defined batteries: It’s all about dollars and cents
The amount of money spent on making battery packs smart will be offset by a large margin through the reduction in material costs. Using fewer materials also helps manufacturers become less susceptible to supply chain issues while making the production process more environmentally responsible.
Who doesn’t want to do more with less (and check the ESG box)?
How a universal battery ecosystem works
How do we make our battery ecosystem smart and universal if different applications have different criteria? How do we allow our customers to create customized solutions and scale our operations simultaneously?
The answer lies in the software-driven and hardware-integrated ecosystem approach — TBOS.
We have identified functionalities required by various high-value battery applications. These include serviceability, reliability, safety, the total cost of ownership, ease of implementation, and many more.
We designed the hardware and built the software required to drive each class of functionality. Then, we put it into a neatly-packaged middle layer, which acts as a plug-and-play interface between the cells and the application — making the battery behave in various ways to meet different product requirements.
Software-defined batteries: Use cases and examples
Let’s illustrate the concept of software-defined battery technology with a few use cases.
For applications in the aerospace industry, the total cost of ownership of battery packs isn’t of the highest priority. Instead, manufacturers would trade costs for maximum serviceability, reliability, and safety. TBOS allows them to build battery systems to meet those criteria using an aerospace-focused subset of TBOS features.
On the other hand, industrial environments may prioritize flexibility and service personnel safety in use cases like warehouse robots.
Meanwhile, the total cost of ownership, end-user abuse-proofing, and field serviceability are the primary focus of high-volume applications like EV fleets. A battery for an electric delivery van doesn’t need the same level of reliability as an airplane or space vehicle, and operators can adjust the features to balance cost, serviceability, reliability, and more to optimize profitability.
TBOS: Enabler of electrification at an unprecedented scale
Software-defined power management technology is the bedrock on which the future of electrification is built. TBOS gives product builders the ability to select the functionalities they need for various applications, at the degree they need them, without lengthy and costly R&D.
As a result, more electrified applications can reach the market faster and cheaper to realize the promises and potential of electrification at scale.
