Research Facilities at ACCL

The Autonomous Cognition and Control Laboratory at the University of Alabama in Huntsville operates two adjoining research spaces purpose-built for advanced work in energy storage, intelligent control, and autonomous systems. Together, these facilities provide an end-to-end environment in which battery cells can be characterized, modules stress-tested, control algorithms prototyped, and full battery management systems validated under realistic mission conditions—all under one roof.

Autonomous Cognition and Control Laboratory (ACCL) — Control Validation Space

ACCL's control validation space is a 400-square-foot laboratory dedicated to the validation of advanced control and learning algorithms on real hardware. The space houses a fleet of mobile robots and drones, OPAL-RT rapid control prototyping equipment, and deep-learning workstations—a unique combination that supports research at the intersection of artificial intelligence, control theory, and embedded systems.

Computational resources are distributed across the laboratory's working spaces in ENG 209 and ENG 262 and include seven Dell desktop workstations and two deep-learning servers outfitted with a combined three NVIDIA RTX 3090 Ti GPUs. All systems are provisioned with MATLAB / Simulink, LabVIEW, NI Multisim, and standard productivity software (MS Office, LaTeX). The lab has access to institutional Linux server clusters featuring multiple NVIDIA V100 GPUs, supporting large-scale model training and high-throughput simulation campaigns.

Equipment in ACCL Lab - ENG 262

Energy Systems and Battery Testing Lab - ENG 209

Spanning 800 square feet on the second floor of the Engineering Building, the Energy Systems and Battery Testing Laboratory is the group's flagship experimental facility for lithium-ion battery research. It brings together precision electrochemical instrumentation, high-power testing infrastructure, environmental simulation, and hardware-in-the-loop capability in a single integrated workspace, enabling investigations that span the full hierarchy from single-cell electrochemistry to full-pack management.

Beyond the headline equipment described below, the lab is supported by a complement of programmable power supplies and electronic loads, handheld and benchtop oscilloscopes, function generators, and dedicated tool kits—everything required to take a battery research idea from concept to validated prototype.

Arbin LBT21162 — 16-Channel Cell Tester

A precision 16-channel cell cycler rated at 5 V / 5 A per channel, with the capability to parallel up to eight channels for charge–discharge currents reaching 40 A. The instrument is fully integrated with Arbin's MITS Pro software for protocol design and high-fidelity data logging, and includes sixteen Type-T thermocouple inputs for temperature-resolved characterization. An auxiliary MTCI interface couples the tester directly to the ESPEC environmental chamber, enabling fully automated temperature-controlled cycling experiments.

• Model: LBT21162-0 5V-5/0.5/0/0A-16CH-110V1P

• Power: 110 VAC, 950 VA max, 9 A max per phase

• Auxiliary I/O: 16-channel Type-T thermocouple input; 1-channel MTCI for chamber integration

Arbin LBT22013 — High-Power Module Tester

A two-channel high-power module tester capable of independently driving two modules at up to 60 V / 100 A each, with channels paralleled for currents up to 200 A. Auxiliary voltage, current, and surface-temperature channels permit cell-level monitoring inside fully assembled modules. The system communicates via Ethernet under the same MITS Pro environment, supporting protocols for batteries, supercapacitors, electrochemical cells, and emerging energy-storage chemistries.

• Model: LBT22013-0 60V-100/50/10/1A-2CH-208V3P

• Power: 208 VAC three-phase, 20,940 VA max, 59 A max per phase

ESPEC Environmental Chamber

For replicating real-world deployment conditions, the lab maintains an ESPEC environmental chamber with an interior volume of 19.6" × 15" × 23.6" (W × D × H)—sized to accommodate full battery modules. The chamber spans −70 °C to +180 °C and 10–95 % RH, governed by a Watlow F4T touchscreen controller that supports up to 40 stored profiles of 50 steps each (ramp, soak, jump, auto-start, end). Integrated event and safety-interlock relays, an ESPEC Web Controller API, and Chamber Connect software enable secure remote operation and tight coupling with the cycling instrumentation.

Arbin 10" MZTC Multi-Temperature Chamber

A specialized testbed for parallel cell-level studies, the MZTC unit consists of eight fully independent mini-chambers, each with its own temperature setpoint between (ambient − 10) °C and +60 °C. This makes it possible to subject eight cells simultaneously to entirely different thermal regimes—an invaluable capability for accelerated aging studies, design-of-experiments campaigns, and cell-screening protocols.

Gamry 1010E — Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy

A Gamry 1010E Potentiostat / Galvanostat / ZRA provides impedance measurements over an exceptionally wide frequency range: 10 µHz to 2 MHz. With ±12 V applied potential, ±1 A current capability, and nine selectable current ranges, the unit supports a broad spectrum of electrochemical investigations. Crucially, it is fully integrated with the Arbin cell tester through MITS Pro, enabling automated EIS characterization at any chosen point within a cycling protocol.

Reconfigurable HIL Lithium-ion Cell and Module Testbed

A flagship integration effort currently underway in the laboratory unites the cell tester, module tester, environmental chamber, battery pack simulator, and OPAL-RT real-time platform into a single CAN-bus-coordinated hardware-in-the-loop testbed for battery management system validation. Once complete, this platform will deliver a rare capability: closed-loop, mission-profile-accurate evaluation of BMS hardware and algorithms against physical cells under controlled environmental conditions.