Innovative Methodology for Generating Representative Driving Profiles for Heavy-Duty Trucks from Measured Vehicle Data

The imperative for electrification of road transport, driven by global climate targets, underscores the need for innovative powertrain systems in heavy-duty vehicles. When developing new electric drive modules, individual operational requirements need to be considered instead of generalized usage profiles, as heavy-duty vehicles experience significantly differing loads depending on their field of operation. Real driving data, representing the demands of different application scenarios, offers great potential for digital replication of driving conditions at different stages of simulation and physical validation. Application- and vehicle-specific longitudinal requirements during operation are particularly relevant for the dimensioning of powertrain components. Road gradient and mass estimation assist in the description of these operating conditions, allowing for detailed modeling of the real load conditions. An incorporation of real driving data instead of solely relying on standardized cycles has the potential of tailoring components to the target lead users and applications. While some operating conditions can be recorded by vehicle manufacturers, these are usually not accessible by third parties. In this paper, the authors present an innovative methodology of estimating vehicle parameters for the generation of representative driving profiles for implementation into a consecutive powertrain design process. The approach combines the measurement of real driving data with state estimation. The authors show that the presented methodology enables the generation of driving profiles with less than 25% deviation from the original data set.