Model predictive eco-driving control of internal-combustion-engine vehicles equipped with CVTs in car-following scenarios

Eco-driving control is a key technology for achieving carbon neutrality of vehicles equipped with automated-driving systems and advanced driver-assistance systems. This paper proposes a model-predictive eco-driving controller for car-following by internal-combustion-engine vehicles equipped with continuous variable transmissions. The effectiveness of our controller is demonstrated through numerical simulations. The results indicate that driving operations like the pulse-and-glide strategy are still candidate optimal solutions to the eco-driving control problem in car-following scenarios even in the receding-horizon setting. Moreover, the results indicate that restricting the engine operation range to the optimal brake-specific-fuel-consumption line is not necessarily optimal in the receding-horizon setting. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.