Convex Performance Envelope for Minimum Lap Time Energy Management of Race Cars

The optimization of the energy management of modern hybrid-electric or fully electric race cars for minimum lap time requires a description of the vehicle dynamics performance envelope, that is, of the tires’ grip limit in corners, braking zones and during acceleration. In this paper, we present a computationally efficient performance envelope model in the form of convex constraints on the achievable longitudinal and lateral acceleration, on the assumption that the path on the track is given. The proposed acceleration limits are modeled velocity-dependent to take into account the effect of aerodynamic downforce present in many circuit race cars. The formulation as linear equality, inequality and second-order cone constraints allows to embed the model in a convex energy management optimization framework. To showcase the approach, we identify the model with data obtained from a state-of-the-art hybrid-electric Formula 1 car and present results for the Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps circuits. The optimal energy management strategies can be evaluated with a computational time of less than 1 s. The optimal velocity profile subject to the performance envelope constraints is close to the measured one. The good agreement between the optimal solution and the measurement data shows that the proposed model captures the vehicle dynamics accurately enough for the purposes of energy management optimization.