The purpose of the present invention is to improve fuel efficiency during coasting by calculating, with high accuracy, travel resistance during coasting. This vehicle control device comprises: a first travel resistance acquisition unit that acquires a first travel resistance, which is determined on the basis of road information or external information; and a second travel resistance acquisition unit that acquires a second travel resistance, which is determined on the basis of the result of actual traveling of the vehicle. This vehicle control device determines the content of coasting travel control during traveling of the vehicle on the basis of the result of a comparison of the first travel resistance and the second travel resistance in a predetermined zone where the vehicle has actually traveled.

A vehicle and a method of calculating a load therefor for calculating a driving load based on a weather condition are provided. The method includes acquiring weather information regarding rain or snow and calculating a first driving load applied to an upper surface portion of the vehicle based on the weather information. A second driving load applied to a front surface portion of the vehicle is calculated based on the weather information and a third driving load that is a driving load due to weather is calculated by summing the first driving load and the second driving load.

Disclosed herein is a system and method for determining the compaction of terrain based on rolling resistance. The system comprises a work machine configured to move along a route along the terrain, a navigation system configured to generate route data indicative of the route, a sensor configured to generate operating parameter data indicative of an operating parameter of the work machine moving along the route, and a processing unit. The processing unit is configured to process the operating parameter data to generate rolling resistance data indicative of the resistance by the terrain to the movement of the work machine along the route, and to process the rolling resistance data to generate compaction data indicative of the compaction of the terrain along the route.

In one embodiment, a first set of driving statistics is measured and collected from an autonomous driving vehicle (ADV) at different points in time in response to various control commands while the ADV is driving in various driving environments. Based on the first set of driving statistics, a search is conducted in each of the load calibration tables to find a load calibration table having similar driving statistics. One of the load calibration tables is selected, which contains a second set of driving statistics that are most similar to the first set of driving statistics. A current load of the ADV is determined based on the selected load calibration table, for example, by designating the load associated with the selected load calibration table as the current load of the ADV. The load of the ADV can be utilized as a factor for generating subsequent control commands for the ADV.

A vehicle monitoring device includes a positioning device, a distance calculator, a first imaging device, a volume calculator, and a work calculator. The positioning device measures a position of a vehicle including a loading platform. The distance calculator calculates a movement distance of the vehicle based on the position of the vehicle measured by the positioning device. The first imaging device captures an image of a load mounted on the loading platform. The volume calculator calculates a volume of the load based on the image captured by the first imaging device. The work calculator calculates a work of the vehicle based on the movement distance and the volume of the load.

A method of operating a vehicle, comprising: receiving ambient air information; receiving size, distance and relative velocity information about a vehicle in proximity to the vehicle; receiving road surface properties information; receiving wind velocity and direction information; computing an air density ratio factor using the ambient air information; computing an aerodynamic drag ratio factor using the size, distance and relative velocity information; computing a rolling resistance ratio factor using the information road surface properties information; computing effective velocity of the vehicle using the wind velocity and direction information; combining at least one of the air density ratio factor, the aerodynamic drag ratio factor and the rolling resistance ratio factor with vehicle loss coefficients to determining new vehicle loss coefficients; computing an energy loss or power loss of the vehicle using the new vehicle loss coefficients and the effective velocity of the vehicle; and controlling the vehicle to improve fuel economy.

A method for operating a hybrid vehicle includes monitoring, a rotational speed of an internal combustion engine (2) or a rotational speed of an electric machine (3) or a rotational speed of a transmission (4) or a rotational speed of a driven end (5) during travel with the internal combustion engine (2) running and the separating clutch (7) engaged in order to determine an increase in driving resistance. The method also includes, when the monitored rotational speed falls below or reaches a first limiting value, partially disengaging the separating clutch (7) toward a disengagement position in which a torque transmitted by the separating clutch (7) is adjusted such that an idling speed governor of the internal combustion engine (2) accelerates the rotational speed of the internal combustion engine toward the idling speed of the internal combustion engine (2).

A method, system and computer program product are provided for determining a measure of brake system usage during operation of a vehicle, the vehicle comprising a power source for generating a motive force for propulsion of the vehicle in a first direction of travel, and driver controllable means for requesting a brake force that acts against a movement of the vehicle in the first direction of travel. When a driver of the vehicle requests a brake force, the method comprises determining an influence on the vehicle acceleration caused by the request for brake force; and determining, based on the determined influence, a measure of brake system usage of the vehicle, the measure indicating a level of economical driving, wherein a particular level is arranged to depend on the magnitude of the influence on the vehicle acceleration caused by the request for brake force.

The present disclosure relates to a vehicle to vehicle aerodynamics system which communicates information among vehicles to determine aerodynamics of a vehicle and determine changes to the vehicles which may improve aerodynamics of the vehicle and/or overall aerodynamics of a group of vehicles.

A method for determining a beneficial effect of a platoon comprises a leading vehicle and a following vehicle. In a first step, at least one first pressure acting on the leading vehicle is determined by means of an electronic processing unit. In a second step, at least one second pressure acting on the following vehicle is determined by means of the electronic processing unit. In a third step, a difference between the first and second pressures is determined by means of the electronic processing unit. In a fourth step, at least one benefit value is determined on the basis of the difference, by means of the electronic processing unit, the benefit value characterizing the beneficial effect of the platoon on at least one of the vehicles.