Synthesis of Pontryagin's Maximum Principle Analysis for Speed Profile Optimization of All-Electric Vehicles

Abstract

This paper presents a study of the energy-efficient operation of all-electric vehicles leveraging route information, such as road grade, to adjust the velocity trajectory. First, Pontryagin's maximum principle (PMP) is applied to derive necessary conditions and to determine the possible operating modes. The analysis shows that only five modes are required to achieve minimum energy consumption: full propulsion, cruising, coasting, full regeneration, and full regeneration with conventional braking. Then, the minimum energy consumption problem is reformulated and solved in the distance domain using dynamic programming to find the optimal speed profiles. Various simulation results are shown for a lightweight autonomous military vehicle. The sensitivity of energy consumption to regenerative-braking power limits and trip time is investigated. These studies provide important information that can be used in designing component size and scheduling operation to achieve the desired vehicle range.