Investigating comfort-oriented optimization of eco-driving cruising strategy: A driving simulator study

Eco-driving cruising strategies can effectively reduce energy demand and contribute to extend the range of full electric vehicles. However, the adoption of these strategies, involving alternating cycles of acceleration and deceleration as a replacement for constant-speed cruising, may potentially compromise the longitudinal comfort of the vehicle. In this paper, a method for a comfort-oriented optimization of eco-driving cruising strategies is proposed and validated by using a dynamic driving simulator. Dynamic driving simulators are rarely used for longitudinal comfort assessment. Therefore, a series of preliminary tests are conducted to compare the longitudinal comfort perceived on a driving simulator and on an actual vehicle. It turns out that, with appropriate cueing settings, the perceived longitudinal comfort remains consistent across both scenarios. Moreover, levels of jerk related to the perception of vehicle comfort at different velocities are identified to serve as reference in the eco-driving strategy design. On the basis of these results, an eco-driving cruising strategy is optimized within a two-step multi-objective framework based on GA by considering both energy consumption and longitudinal comfort. Subsequently, the Pareto points corresponding to the thresholds, representing the occupants’ comfort preferences, are evaluated at the driving simulator. These tests show that the comfort ranking of the solution is consistent between the optimization process and the subjective perceptions and confirm the reference jerk levels determined in the preliminary tests and the effectiveness of the optimization procedure, indicating dynamic driving simulators can be effectively employed to assess the longitudinal comfort of vehicles and to evaluate eco-driving cruising strategies.