MEM 493

Senior Design Weekly Report

-- Spring 2016 -Long Haul Truck Cruise Control
for Fuel Optimization
Cheng Chen (cc3253@drexel.edu)
Lanziye He (lh523@drexel.edu)
Qi Jiang (qj28@drexel.edu)
Yuzhou Liu (yl648@drexel.edu)
Xindi Yin (xy57@drexel.edu)

Submission Date: April 4, 2016

Group: 11B

Advisor: Dr. Harry Kwatny

Spring Weekly Report

Project Website: http://memseniordesigntruck.weebly.com/
Spring Quarter Schedule
Finish Look Ahead Controller design
Test data collection

UI (User Interface) Design

Market analysis

Previous work summary

There are three major modifications that have been done on the controller: adding
proportional brake controller, optimizing transmission gear shifting logic, and creating new
proportional speed controller.
Firstly, a brake controller was added. A proportional controller was used, due to the fact
that proportional control grants the system faster response and shorter computing time. Brake
force required to maintain the truck in an force equilibrium state is calculated by the following
equation. where Fg is the gravitational force, Fr is the rolling resistance and

Fa

is the

aerodynamic resistance. To minimize the fuel wasted while braking, two more actions will be
taken: firstly, the brake only engages if the truck is going downhills. Secondly, the throttle input
is zero when the brake is engaged.

The original controller makes the engine operated in the range between 800 rpm and
1200 rpm. However, when truck is going uphill, the engine should be operated in the maximum
torque range to compensate the significantly increased resistance. Hence, the engines operating
range should be increased by 100 rpm, that means between 900 rpm and 1300 rpm. This will
ensure the engine to work within its maximum torque range while fuel consumption still
maintains minimized .

Figure 1. Original cruise controller [1]

Figure 2: Improved truck cruise controller

By examining the results generated from the the real time controller in figure 2 in the
winter quarter, the real time controller cannot minimize the fuel consumption and meet the
design constraints at the same time. Thus, the look ahead controller was added and tested to see
if it meet all the constraints. The goal of the look ahead controller is to improve the speed
control as well as the gear shifting strategy in advance. At first, a simple look ahead function was
designed. After the simulations, this simple look ahead function did not give satisfied results and
even worse than the sample controller. By using this look ahead controller, the engine will just
response to the road in advance blindly, and thus the truck will not perform better. The team then
start a new strategy, which is to set a length of the look-ahead horizon and divided it into several
equal steps. The new strategy has been tested and proved that it can reduce the fuel cost. The
team will do further development of this new strategy in the spring quarter.

Results Comparisons and analysis

Right now, the real time controller is able to allow the heavy duty truck to cruise under
the legal constraints. From the simulation graphs ( figure 3) in the Appendices section, the new
controllers average speed is greater than the desired 80 km/h. The fuel consumption is
36.43L/100 km. Also from figure 4, the air fuel ratio lambda value is all above 1.3 and the
overspeeding problem has been resolved. However, the retrofitted look ahead controller is not
perfect because it will cost extra 2 liters of diesel fuel per 100 km if the truck travels under the
physical and legal constraints. Moreover, the look ahead strategy is developed based on the
multiple steps and the ahead slope road profile data was used to calculate the reference speed and
reference gear ratio. If the step number increases and step size decreases, then the execute time
will be very long. Hence, as indicated in the schedule table at the beginning, the new
improvements will be done on the look ahead controller in spring quarter. The detailed new
strategy is discussed in the below section.

New strategy progress

The new strategy set a length of the lookahead horizon, and divided it into several equal
steps. In each step, the controller is able to calculate the torque needed on wheel to overcome the

resistance of the gravity force, rolling resistance, and aerodynamic resistance. The torque of
wheel then transferred to the engine torque through transmission, and the engine torque can be
matched to the feasible range of engine speed.
The logic of the new strategy has been completed, and it is in the building process. The
next step is to finish the strategy and estimate whether it can reduce the fuel consumption.
Due to the short period of the last quarter, all the design work has to be done at the first
several week. The new strategy will be done by week 2 in order to have enough time to make
comparison and decision.

Project management
Simulation Design
Assigned to Qi Jiang and Yuzhou Liu
Due time: the end of week 2
Complete the new look ahead strategy. Create new logic for computing the look ahead speed and
gear reference to avoid too much work during the simulation. Gather results from the new
controller.
Result test
Assigned to Xindi Yin
Due time: the end of week 4
Collect different results with different system inputs. Make

list and table of all the test

performances. Visualize the difference with respect to the change of different control inputs.

UI design
Assigned to Cheng Chen
Design and create a MATLAB GUI based UI that will be the graphical user interface to control
the inputs. Perform the usability test. Do the further improvement for the UI based on the
usability testing results.
Due time: the end of week 4

Market analysis
Assigned to Lanziye He
Due time: the end of week 4
Investigate and analyze the demand of the product. Examine the feasibility of transferring the
prototype to the real heavy duty truck. Estimate the look ahead controller annual fuel savings
based on the research.

Reference
[1] Eriksson, Lars, Anders Larsson, and Andreas Thomasson. "Heavy Duty Truck on Open
Road----The AAC2016 Benchmark." (2015). Print.

Appendices

Figure 3 : vehicle speed and fuel consumption graphs

Figure 4: speed and lambda graphs