Hierarchical Control of Heavy-Duty Trucks Through Signalized Intersections With Non-Deterministic Signal Timing

This paper presents a hierarchical Green-Light Approach Speed (h-GLAS) strategy for controlling heavy-duty trucks traveling through urban/suburban environments, where future intersection signal phase and timing (SPaT) information is non-deterministic. Through vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, past SPaT information is sent to the vehicle and is used to forecast future predictions of the signal timing using a Gaussian Process (GP) model. The h-GLAS strategy uses the predicted SPaT information to generate an efficient desired velocity profile that navigates through intersections where the probability of a green light is maximized. This velocity profile is tracked by a convex model predictive controller (MPC) that simultaneously minimizes mechanical energy expenditure and braking effort over its prediction horizon. Downstream from the MPC, we implement a command governor (CG) that adjusts the MPC output by the minimum amount necessary to maintain safe vehicle following and ensure that the vehicle stops at all red lights. Using a proprietary medium-fidelity Simulink model provided by Volvo Trucks, we characterize the h-GLAS strategy’s performance over a real suburban route, consisting of 10 actuated signalized intersections, using actual SPaT information provided by the NC Department of Traffic (DOT). Simulation results demonstrate a 30-43% reduction in fuel consumption, as compared to a baseline control strategy, which is attributable primarily to avoiding the massive energy losses associated with braking. Furthermore, we evaluate the computational efficiency of our approach by assessing average simulation execution times.