Powertrain optimization for an earthmoving vehicle

The advent of integrated powertrain technologies offers great potential for improvements in efficiency and transient performance of powertrains. This work examines the integration of various powertrain subsystems onboard an earthmoving vehicle. The nature of the variable displacement pumping subsystem is similar in concept to other forms of continuously variable transmissions. Separate controllers are designed using gain scheduled H_∞ synthesis to address the problems of efficiency and performance. Both controllers are combined through switching logic to enable explicit tradeoffs between the objectives and thus improve the powertrain productivity. The devised control strategies are implemented on a hardware-in-the-loop representation of an earthmoving vehicle powertrain. The baseline efficiency controller is further improved by a hybrid design that effectively deactivates part of the powertrain system when not in use.