Model predictive control of hybrid electric vehicles for fuel economy, emission reductions, and inter-vehicle safety in car-following scenarios

This paper develops a model predictive multi-objective control framework for HEVs in car-following scenarios to investigate the interplay between fuel economy, vehicle exhaust emissions, and inter-vehicle safety. Specifically, an MPC-based controller is developed to optimize the vehicle speed and engine torque for better fuel economy and fewer exhaust emissions while ensuring inter-vehicle safety. The engine-out emission model and its impact on energy management are considered in the optimization. The proposed controller is evaluated at different driving conditions, such as urban driving and highway driving. The proposed controller is compared with conventional controllers used in ADVISOR. The comparison results demonstrate that the proposed controller can reduce fuel consumption by 10.49%, CO by 48.02%, HC by 55.38%, and NOx by 22.79% in the UDDS driving cycle. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.