Road slope estimation for heavy-duty vehicles under the influence of multiple source factors in real complex road environments

Accurate road slope information is of paramount importance for optimizing vehicle control and enhancing energy efficiency. In the context of heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs), the precise estimation of road slope presents a formidable challenge. This challenge is rooted in the coupling between vehicle mass and road slope, the robustness of road slope estimation methods across diverse driving styles, and the generalizability of algorithms to real-world road scenarios. To address these challenges, this paper proposes an innovative road slope estimation scheme that comprehensively considers the influences of multiple source factors in a real-world HDV transportation scenario. Firstly, in order to solve the problem of road slope estimation error under complex road types and different driving styles, a complex road slope estimation method based on the nonlinear predictive filter (NPF) combined with the Cubature Kalman filter (CKF) is constructed. To eliminate the problem of vehicle power fluctuation in special traffic scenarios, we propose a special scenario road slope estimation method based on the combination of a low-pass filter (LPF) and the NPF_CKF algorithm. To address the error problem when using low-cost Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sensors, we designed a Kalman filter (KF)-based multi-sensor fusion correction method. Finally, we conduct real-world experiments on complex roads at the test site to verify the accuracy of the proposed estimation method and its insensitivity to model parameters. The robustness and applicability of the proposed method are also verified in free-driving experiments conducted in real-world road scenarios.