Hierarchical optimization control strategy for intelligent fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles platoon in complex operation conditions

Encountering complex traffic conditions such as the dynamic interference of preceding and rear vehicles and gradients, a control strategy that simultaneously considers inter-vehicle cooperative control and energy economy is one of the key technologies, that improves traffic efficiency and exploits the energy-saving potential of platoon vehicles. In this paper, a hierarchical optimization control strategy is proposed for the intelligent fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles (FCHEV) platoon in a network-connected environment. The hierarchical control framework consists of upper speed control and lower power distribution. In the upper layer, the improved particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is applied to calculate the global optimal speed trajectory, and then the model predictive control (MPC) is adopted for global speed trajectory tracking and self-adaptation, which can ensure the ego vehicle tracks the pre-calculated speed trajectory, and can re-plan the vehicle speed under the condition of safety priority when sudden disturbances occur in the foreground. The lower layer utilizes Q-learning (QL) to achieve power distribution between hybrid power sources, reducing the number of fuel cell starts and stops, slowing battery degradation and improving vehicle economy. Simulation results based on complex road conditions show that the proposed controller has good energy economy and tracking performance. Under the condition of the slope, the total platoon cost of the proposed strategy is reduced by 3.99% compared with the constant speed cruise strategy, and under the interference condition, the total platoon consumption cost of the proposed strategy decreased by 6.79% compared with adaptive cruise control (ACC).