US 12,441,312 B2
Real-time, energy-efficient computations of optimal road vehicle velocity profiles
Sven Van Koutrik, Zürich (CH); Joachim Ferreau, Maur (CH); Stefano Longo, Zürich (CH); and Alexander Domahidi, Zürich (CH)
Assigned to EMBOTECH AG, Zürich (CH)
Appl. No. 18/033,218
Filed by EMBOTECH AG, Zürich (CH)
PCT Filed Oct. 22, 2020, PCT No. PCT/EP2020/079814
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Apr. 21, 2023,
PCT Pub. No. WO2022/083873, PCT Pub. Date Apr. 28, 2022.
Prior Publication US 2023/0391328 A1, Dec. 7, 2023
Int. Cl. B60W 30/14 (2006.01); B60W 40/105 (2012.01); B60W 50/00 (2006.01)
CPC B60W 30/143 (2013.01) [B60W 40/105 (2013.01); B60W 50/0097 (2013.01); B60W 2050/0031 (2013.01); B60W 2520/10 (2013.01); B60W 2720/103 (2013.01)] 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A computer-implemented method for controlling a speed of a vehicle given energy-related quantities that pertain to moving the vehicle, each of said quantities being referred to as an energy expense, wherein the method comprises:
based on route parameters of a route segment, performing a full-horizon optimization by optimizing a target function of a profile of an energy expense, to determine a reference profile X*ref of the energy expense for the entire route segment, the full-horizon optimization constrained with respect to objectives in respect of a total travel time and/or a total travel energy expense for the vehicle to travel said route segment,
wherein the target function represents a travel time t(Xref) for the vehicle to travel said route segment, and is optimized so as to identify said reference profile X*ref as an argument of a minimum of the target function;
obtaining a profile of parameter values based on time-to-energy derivative values obtained according to a by-product of the full-horizon optimization;
based on real-time signals capturing current states of the vehicle, repeatedly determining short-horizon speed profiles of the vehicle to plan speeds Vref of the vehicle along local sections of said route segment, by minimizing, for each of the local sections, a cost function as parameterized by one of the parameter values, the cost function capturing a cost of deviating from an output of the optimized target function due to the short-horizon speed profiles, wherein said output and said one of the parameter values pertain, each, to said each of the local sections;
based on the planned speeds Vref, obtaining control signals for controlling a speed of the vehicle along each of said local sections of the route segment; and
actuating the vehicle in the physical world, according to the obtained control signals.