Optimal Driving Strategy for Solar Electric Vehicle

Abstract

Solar electric vehicles (EVs) can travel a long distance by generating electricity from panels mounted on them. The solar EV can generate a sufficient amount of electricity in fine weather. However, the amount of power generation decreases in cloudy weather. Therefore, to improve the cruising range of solar EVs, it is important to optimize a driving plan and to design a vehicle with good mechanical performance. By defining a evaluation function as time integration of the vehicle's energy balance, this study proposes an optimization theory that takes the variation of weather into account. Then, it proposes two types of solutions: the iterative calculation method and the sequential calculation method. The effectiveness of the theory is verified by simulating actual driving.