Energy-oriented car-following control for a front- and rear-independent-drive electric vehicle platoon

Abstract

In this paper, a cooperative multi-objective platoon control (CMOPC) strategy is proposed for a front- and rear-independent-drive electric vehicle (FRIDEV) platoon. Two major measures are taken in this approach to enhance platoon economy. Firstly, a novel multi-objective nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) system is devised by combining car-following control for connected and automated vehicle platoons and torque distribution control for FRIDEVs to exploit the energy-saving potential of an FRIDEV platoon. Secondly, the total power of all vehicles in the platoon is considered in the cost function to better reflect the overall energy consumption of the platoon. The proposed CMOPC strategy is evaluated under three typical driving cycles, i.e. UDDS, WLTC and HWFET; the ecological cooperative adaptive cruise control strategy is employed as the benchmark of evaluation. The comparative simulation results demonstrate that the proposed CMOPC not only ensures equivalent car-following performance, but also improves the platoon economy by 3.0%, 1.6% and 4.7% respectively under UDDS, WLTC and HWFET driving cycles.