Control of Heavy Duty Vehicle

Control of Heavy Duty Vehicles
Vehicle Control

1. ROBUST LATERAL CONTROL OF HEAVY DUTY VEHICLES

Task Order 4201

Masayoshi Tomizuka, University of California, Berkeley
tomizuka@euler.berkeley.edu, http://www.me.berkeley.edu/faculty/tomizuka.html

This project is a continuation of MOU385. It concludes a two year research effort on a comprehensive study of lateral control schemes for heavy duty vehicles. It will be built on previous PATH MOUs 289 and 313 on the lateral control of heavy duty vehicles. The work will include implementation and testing of previously developed lateral control algorithms for heavy trucks. Enhancement to robustness and performance of the algorithms will also be made. The project will extend previous research to include additional analytical and numerical work for large motion dynamics (lane changing, sharp curve turning, and obstacle avoidance) for heavy duty, to enhance their safety under abnormal operating conditions.

2. INTEGRATED LONGITUDINAL CONTROL FOR SAFE AUTOMATION OF COMMERCIAL HEAVY VEHICLES

Task Order 4202

Christian Gerdes, Stanford University
gerdes@cdr.stanford.edu, http://me.stanford.edu/faculty/facultydir/gerdes.html

Anna G. Stefanopoulou, University of Michigan
annastef@umich.edu, http://www-personal.engin.umich.edu/~annastef

This project is a continuation of MOU393. It concludes a two-year project that will be built on the results of previous PATH MOUs and 314 on the longitudinal control of heavy-duty vehicles. The project considers three issues. The first issue deals with the robust longitudinal control design through on-line adaptation, so that the performance of the automated heavy truck will be insensitive to varying load and road conditions (such as changes in vehicle mass, load variations, road grade, wind gusts, and engine tuning). The second issue is to investigate the use of the engine brake and transmission retarder for braking, and to design controllers that are capable of combining all the different brake actuators for optimal performance. The last issue is to establish autonomous longitudinal vehicle control using the IRIS sensor developed at UCLA. An IRIS prototype will be installed on the experimental heavy truck, and its measurements will be fused with the radar measurements for longitudinal control.

3. CONTROL OF HEAVY-DUTY VEHICLES: ENVIRONMENTAL AND FUEL ECONOMY CONSIDERATIONS

Task Order 4203

Petros Ioannou, University of Southern California
ioannou@usc.edu, http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~ioannou/, http://www.usc.edu/dept/catt

The purpose of the project is to evaluate the environmental performance of existing and developed heavy-duty vehicle following control systems, and develop modifications or new designs where necessary for environmentally efficient controllers using an emissions and fuel consumption model for heavy-duty vehicles being developed at UCR with support from PATH and the U.S. EPA. The controllers will not only guarantee good fuel efficiency but also stability of close vehicle following. The theoretical findings will be validated by experiments using actual vehicles. Trade-offs among environmental efficiency, traffic flow stability, capacity and vehicle stability will be identified and quantified.