Fuel-Saving Oriented Model Predictive Control of Truck Platoons

Fuel consumption problem of truck platoons is considered in this paper, in which a distributed model predictive controller (DMPC) based on lateral and longitudinal coupling dynamics is designed. A two-layer control structure is adopted,in which the upper layer is based on the fuel consumption model and combines the road information to plan the speed of the leading truck. Simultaneously, the tracking ability of the following trucks is considered, the optimal fuel-saving velocity of the platoon is obtained and transmitted to the lower truck control layer. A coupling controller is designed based on the five-degree-of-freedom model in the platoon control layer, co-simulation experiments are provided on joint simulation platform of Trucksim/Simulink, which the simulation results show that the fuel consumption of the platoon based on speed planning is less than that of the platoon based on constant speed cruise. While meeting the safety control of the platoon, fuel consumption has been reduced.