Experience gained from international research and development projects over the last 15 years in the field of electrochemical energy storage systems at Fraunhofer IISB has been implemented in the electronic hardware and software of the foxBMS platform. The electronics is designed to manage high-performance prototypes of advanced and innovative lithium-ion battery systems of any size (i.e., from a few cells up to several hundreds of kWh and kW), especially for systems requiring the highest availability and safety levels. The free and open source version of foxBMS is not intended for immediate use in commercial products as they have to meet specific standards and require application-dependent certifications. In fact, foxBMS is a safe research, development, and test platform providing all functions for managing the complexity of state-of-the-art electrochemical energy storage systems. Specific adaptions of foxBMS can be ordered directly from Fraunhofer IISB or can be jointly developed with us for you, for example for automotive, aviation, space, submarine, industrial, and renewable energy storage applications.

Fraunhofer IISB delivers the first generation of its open source battery management system (BMS) research and development platform, foxBMS. The foxBMS platform is completely free and open, designed for maximum flexibility, and comprehensively documented. It includes all necessary hardware and software for potentially any kind of mobile and stationary application that uses modern rechargeable electrochemical energy storage systems (e.g., lithium-ion batteries, redox-flow batteries, supercapacitors). The foxBMS hardware schematics and the layout of all electronic boards are available for download. The circuit design is based on commonly available components and devices, that do not require NDAs or confidentiality agreements. The foxBMS software toolchain uses only free of charge third-party software. The entire BMS source code is provided online with its own development environment and configuration files, enabling immediate use on Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems.

With foxBMS you get a free and open BMS platform that can be used for developing and testing your products. The foxBMS hardware and documentation are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. The foxBMS software is licensed under the BSD 3-Clause license. This means, foxBMS parts can be used unrestrictedly including commercial use. The foxBMS platform especially addresses R&D and test engineers requiring a smart, powerful, and well documented BMS platform. Engineering companies as well as small enterprises requiring a flexible and future proof BMS may profit from a maintained and supported BMS like foxBMS. Large enterprises asking for a reliable and safe BMS can use foxBMS for testing their prototypes. Research organizations requiring a simple and universal BMS development platform or students looking for a free and open BMS software development toolchain are welcome to include foxBMS in their projects.