On-board torque management approach to the E-COSM benchmark problem with a prediction-based engine assignment

This paper proposes an energy management strategy for the benchmark problem of E-COSM 2021 to improve the energy efficiency of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) on a road with a slope. We assume that HEVs are in a connected environment with real-time vehicle-to-everything information, including geographic information, vehicle-to-infrastructure information and vehicle-to-vehicle information. The benchmark problem to be solved is based on HEV powertrain control using traffic information to achieve fuel economy improvements while satisfying the constraints of driving safety and travel time. The proposed strategy includes multiple rules and model predictive control (MPC). The rules of this strategy are designed based on external environment information to maintain safe driving and to determine the driving mode. To improve fuel economy, the optimal energy management strategy is primarily considered, and to perform real-time energy management via RHC-based optimization in a connected environment with safety constraints, a key issue is to predict the dynamics of the preceding vehicle during the targeted horizon. Therefore, this paper presents a real-time model-based optimization strategy with learning-based prediction of the vehicle’s future speed. To validate the proposed optimization strategy, a powertrain control simulation platform in a traffic-in-the-loop environment is constructed, and case study results performed on the constructed platform are reported and discussed.