Fuel efficient model predictive control strategies for a group of connected vehicles incorporating vertical vibration

This paper presents a decentralized fuel efficient model predictive control(MPC) strategy for a group of connected vehicles incorporating vertical vibration. To capture the vehicle vibration dynamics, the dynamics of the suspension system is integrated with the longitudinal dynamics of the vehicle. Furthermore, a MPC framework with finite time horizon is formulated to calculate the optimal velocity profile that compromises fuel economy, mobility and ride comfort for every individual vehicle with the safety and physical constraints considered. In the MPC framework, the target velocity is calculated using signal phase and timing(SPAT)information to reduce the number of stoppage at red lights, and the vertical acceleration is calculated parallel to the calculation of the fuel consumption. The MPC optimal problem is solved with fast-MPC approach which enhances the computational efficiency via exploiting the structure of the control system and approximate methods. Simulation studies are conducted over different SPATs and connectivity penetration rates and the results validate the advantages of the proposed control architecture.

Design and optimization of equivalent consumption minimization strategy for 4WD hybrid electric vehicles incorporating vehicle connectivity

This paper presents an optimized equivalent consumption minimization strategy(ECMS) for four-wheel-drive(4 WD) hybrid electric vehicles(HEVs) incorporating vehicle connectivity. In order to be applicable to the 4 WD architecture, the ECMS is designed based on a rule-based strategy and used under the condition that a certain propulsion mode is activated. Assuming that a group of 4 WD HEVs are connected and position information can be shared with each other, we formulate a decentralized model predictive control(MPC) framework that compromises fuel efficiency, mobility, and inter-vehicle distance to optimize the velocity profile of each individual vehicle. Based on the optimized velocity profile, an optimization problem considering both fuel economy and battery state of charge(SOC) sustainability is formulated to optimize the equivalent factors(EFs) of the ECMS for HEVs over an appropriate time window. MATLAB User Datagram Protocol(UDP) is used in the codes run on multiple computers to simulate the wireless communication among vehicles, which share position information via UDP-based communication, and dSPACE is used as a software-in-the-loop platform for the simulation of the optimized ECMS. Simulation results validate the control effectiveness of the proposed method.