Vehicle-Infrastructure Integration (VII) enabled plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVS) for traffic and energy management

Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) program (also known as IntelliDrive) has proven the potential to improve transportation conditions by enabling the communication between vehicles and infrastructure, which provides a wide range of applications in transportation safety and mobility. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) that utilize both electrical and gasoline energy are a commercially viable technology with potential to contribute to both sustainable development and environmental conservation through increased fuel economy and reduced emissions. Considering positive potentials of PHEVs and VII in ITS, a framework that integrates PHEVs with VII technology was created in this research utilizing vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications for transmitting real time and predicted traffic information. This framework aims to adjust the vehicle speed at each time interval on its driving mission and dynamically optimize the total energy consumption during the trip. Equivalent Consumption Minimization Strategy (ECMS) was utilized as the control strategy of PHEVs energy management for minimization of the equivalent energy. It was found that VII traffic information has the capability to benefit energy management, as presented in this thesis, while supporting the broader national transportation goals of an active transportation system where drivers, vehicles and infrastructure are integrated in a real time fashion to improve overall traffic conditions.