The implementation of connected and automated vehicle technologies enables opportunities for a novel computational framework for real-time control actions aimed at optimizing energy consumption and associated benefits. In this paper, we present a two-level control architecture for a connected and automated plug-in hybrid electric vehicle to optimize simultaneously its speed profile and powertrain efficiency. We evaluate the proposed architecture through simulation in a network of vehicles.
I. INTRODUCTIONIn this paper, we are interested in investigating the opportunities to improve the efficiency of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and plug-in HEVs (PHEVs) when these vehicles are connected and automated. In an earlier work, we discussed the potential benefits of optimally coordinated connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) in a corridor using a traffic microsimulation environment without considering powertrain optimization [1]. In this paper, we apply a two-level supervisory control architecture for connected and automated PHEVs (CA-PHEVs) that consists of a vehicle dynamics (VD) controller and a powertrain (PT) controller. The supervisory controller oversees the VD and PT controllers and communicates the endogenous and exogenous information appropriately. The VD controller optimizes online the vehicle acceleration/deceleration profile to avoid stop-and-go driving in situations where there is a potential conflict with other vehicles, e.g., ramps, intersections, stop signs, roundabouts, etc. The PT controller computes the optimal nominal operation (set-points) for the engine and motor corresponding to the optimal solution derived from the VD controller. The complexity of the problem dimensionality can be managed by establishing two parallel and appropriately interacting computational levels, namely a cloud-based level, and a vehicle-based level.The objectives of this paper are to (1) optimize vehicle speed profile in terms of energy consumption and compare