Fuel‐efficient and safe distributed hierarchical control for connected hybrid electric vehicles platooning

Abstract In order to enhance the performance of safety and fuel economy of connected hybrid electric vehicles (CHEVs), a novel distributed hierarchical platoon control scheme of CHEVs is proposed. First, the non‐linear dynamic model of CHEVs platooning is established to accurately depict the multi‐process coupling characteristics of CHEVs. Then, a distributed hierarchical control framework for CHEVs platooning is proposed, which is consisted of a upper model predictive control (MPC) law and a lower energy management control law. The upper MPC control law is built to produce the desired accelerations of every vehicle in the platoon and the lower fuzzy‐based energy management control law is constructed to ensure the engine maintain at the rang of optimum working point and the motor work with the high efficiency of CHEVs platooning. Finally, the results manifest that the effectiveness of proposed platoon control scheme for CHEVs.