Control Design for an Articulated Truck With Autonomous Driving in an Electrified Highway

Abstract

The basis of an electrified highway or eHighway is an intelligent current collector combined with a hybrid drive system, where the eHighway trucks collect power from the overhead cables. The first prototype for these vehicles has been developed by Siemens, but these vehicles need drivers. This paper presents a conceptual model that is an evolution of this approach, proposing a fully electrical vehicle with autonomous driving. This idea has been analyzed through simulations by using a model composed by an articulated truck and its electrical powertrain system, including a control system as well, based the on the model predictive control (MPC), widely used in autonomous vehicles. The vehicle model consists of a 2D model with 10 degrees of freedom, corresponding to the longitudinal and lateral displacements of the tractor, the tractor yaw angle, the semi-trailer yaw angle, and the rotations of the six equivalent wheels. Besides, an electric powertrain system, batteries, and a regenerative brake have been integrated into the model. Several simulation cases have been developed corresponding to an adaptive cruise control, a trajectory tracking, and an overtaking maneuver. The aim of these simulations is also to obtain the minimum size of the battery and its autonomy for an overtaking maneuver, since it is necessary to disconnect the truck from the overhead contact line during this maneuver. The simulations show the viability of this conceptual proposal, obtaining results similar to those expected.