LOOK-AHEAD CONTROL FOR HEAVY TRUCKS TO MINIMIZE TRIP TIME AND FUEL CONSUMPTION

The scenario studied is a drive mission for a heavy diesel truck. With aid of an on board road slope database in combination with a GPS unit, information about the road geometry ahead is extracted. This look-ahead information is used in an optimization of the velocity trajectory with respect to a criterion formulation that weighs trip time and fuel consumption. A dynamic programming algorithm is devised and used in a predictive control scheme by constantly feeding the conventional cruise controller with new set points. The algorithm is evaluated with a real truck on a highway, and the experimental results show that the fuel consumption can be significantly reduced.