Ecological Cooperative Adaptive Control of Connected Automate Vehicles in Mixed and Power-Heterogeneous Traffic Flow

The development of vehicle electrification and intelligent network technologies has led to a new type of mixed and power-heterogeneous traffic flow, comprised of regular vehicles (RVs) and connected and automated vehicles (CAVs), fuel vehicles (FVs) and electric vehicles (EVs). To reduce the energy consumption of mixed and power-heterogeneous traffic flow operating at a signalized intersection, the Ecological Control Unit-Cooperative Adaptive Control (ECU-CACC) is proposed in this paper. The vehicle platoon is divided into units which are named minimum ecological control units (min-ECUs). A bi-level control framework is designed to improve traffic efficiency and reduce energy consumption. The lower-level aims to plan the best ecological trajectory for every min-ECU, and the upper-level optimizes the passing strategies for efficiency through speed coordination. Scenario numerical experiments are performed to verify the effectiveness of the bi-level optimal control model and analyze the energy-saving effect of ECU-CACC under different vehicle mixing situations. The results from the experiment prove the excellent energy-saving potential of the proposed ECU-CACC, which helps the min-ECUs save about 10-20% energy consumption compared with a regular pattern.

Automated summary

This paper proposes an Ecological Control Unit-Cooperative Adaptive Control (ECU-CACC) system to reduce energy consumption in mixed and power-heterogeneous traffic flow. A bi-level control framework is designed to improve traffic efficiency and reduce energy consumption. Numerical experiments verify the effectiveness of the system and analyze the energy-saving effect under different vehicle mixing situations.