Impacts of Various Control Strategies on Truck Platooning Fuel Consumption and Gap Performance Studied Using a High Fidelity Simulation Model Validated with Texas and Indiana Field Data.
Texas, United States
Indiana, United States
Develop and Deploy a Safe Truck Platoon Testing Protocol for the Purdue ARPA-E Project in Indiana
Summary Information
Platooning of trucks at short following distances has promise for reducing fuel consumption but efficiency in hilly terrain can pose challenges. Researchers compared different control strategies for driving the front truck in a two-truck heavy-duty platoon and a shifting strategy to improve platooning on a route with hilly terrain with grades up to 4.5 percent. A high-fidelity simulation framework was developed to simulate single-truck and two-truck platoon operations on real world test routes. Simulation results were validated using field experiments conducted in Texas and Indiana in 2019. Two trucks were configured for relevant combinations of four functionalities being assessed:
- coordinated shifting
- constant or variable platoon gap controls
- flexible or constant speed set point cruise control of the front trucks
- long-horizon predictive cruise control (LHPCC) of the front truck
Confirmation of this functionality observed in simulation during platooning was demonstrated at the test track in Uvalde, Texas. In Indiana, on-road experiments were limited to single-truck operations with LHPCC, flexible set speed cruise control, and constant set point cruise control. Data from field experiments was used to improve the fidelity of simulations.
Methodology
For a single truck configuration, researchers used a simulation model consisting of one vehicle model, a speed tracker, a speed profile, and road-grade data for the selected route. In a two-truck platoon simulation configuration, the simulation model consisted of two vehicle models, a speed tracker, a speed profile, a follow truck platoon gap controller, and road grade data for the route. Speed profiles for different driver models were experimentally collected using the single truck experimental setup, and fed into the simulation framework. The high-fidelity simulation framework was validated using two-truck platoon experimental data.
Findings
- Comparing simulation results with and without coordinated shifting, simultaneous shifting improves platoon gap control by reducing the average maximum gap by up to 32 percent and average cumulative gap error by up to 73.5 percent.
- The simulation analyses estimated fuel savings for the platoon of 12.3 percent when the front truck used LHPCC, 8.7 percent when the front truck used flexible set speed cruise control, and 1.2 percent when the front truck used fixed set speed cruise control.
