Smart and Green ACC series: A city and highway specific approach towards a safe and efficient eDAS

The successful transition of fully electric vehicle into automotive market is plagued with expensive product prices and limited drive range. While manufacturers point to fuel saving benefits, the actual cost savings after the first battery replacement presents negative economics. Hence it is necessary to maximise the fuel saving costs and to prolong the battery life as much as possible. The situation calls for an assistant system which takes into consideration the inherent propulsion system dynamics of electric vehicle in two typical situations – namely city and highway. Here we propose a combination of two systems, first a dynamic programming based acceleration controller for city cycle and second, an eHorizon based ACC system for maximum recuperation on highways. This paper is an extension of papers [1,2] and forms a series which is attributed to the development of a partial or complete “Safe and energy efficient longitudinal vehicle controller”. Such a controller is named “SAGA” - Smart and Green Automated Cruise Control. It is an ecological driver assistance system (eDAS) that adapts the vehicle speed over all its speed range according to a forward vehicle and to road events in a near horizon (legal speed, curves, etc…) with an aim to reduce the energy consumption without compromising on safety.