Optimization tool for gear shift strategy control design

Abstract: Modern construction vehicles are required to perform very well in tough conditions. It is therefore of great importance that they have well developed gear shift strategies to manage with these requirements. These strategies are updated often and they are normally based on empirical knowledge and extensive testing. It is of interest to know if software tools can be used to provide theoretical analysis to further modernize and improve the gear shift strategy design process. This thesis investigates this possibility by creating an optimization tool that can provide various optimized simulations. These simulations finds the theoretical optimal velocities and gear shifts for driving specific distances. It is done by creating a vehicle model that is used to form an optimal control problem. This optimal control problem uses a dynamical programming algorithm as a solver and the results are optimized simulations. The optimization tool has the possibility to investigate ways to minimize travel time, fuel consumption and durability losses. It is concluded that there are ways to drive that can reduce the fuel consumption and durability losses by a large amount while not affecting the travel time very much.