Energy efficient driving in dynamic environment: Considering other traffic participants and overtaking possibility

This chapter studies energy efficient driving of (semi)autonomous electric vehicles operating in a dynamic environment with other traffic participants on a unidirectional, multi-lane road. This scenario is considered to be a so called hard problem, as constraints imposed are varying in time and space. Neglecting the constraints imposed from the surrounding traffic, the generation of an energy optimal speed trajectory may lead to bad results, with the risk of low driver acceptance when applied in a real driving environment. An existing approach satisfies constraints from surrounding traffic by modifying an existing unconstrained trajectory. In contrast to this, the proposed approach incorporates a leading vehicle’s motion as constraint in order to generate a new optimal speed trajectory in a global optimal sense. First simulation results show that energy optimal driving considering other vehicle participants is important. Even in simple setups significantly (8%) less energy is consumed at only 1.3% travelling time prolongation compared to the best constant speed driving strategy. Additionally, the proposed driving strategy is using 4.5% less energy and leads to 1.6% shorter travelling time compared to the existing overtaking approach. Using simulation studies, the proposed energy optimal driving strategy is analyzed in different scenarios.