# US 2025/0085124 A1 · Route planning for increased braking performance in a fuel cell powered vehicle > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2025/0085124 A1 - Document ID: US20250085124A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 18/798,229 - Filed: 2024-08-08 - Published: 2025-03-13 - Earliest claimed: 2023-09-11 - Assignees: Volvo Truck Corporation - Applicants: Volvo Truck Corporation - Inventors: Martin WILHELMSSON; Linus NORDHOLM; Tobias SMIDEBRANT; Gabriel TRÖNNBERG; Johan BJERNETUN; Jenny BLOMQVIST; Johan LINDBERG; Johan AXELSSON - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20250085124A1 ## CPC - G01C 21/3469: {Fuel consumption; Energy use; Emission aspects} - B60L 58/12: responding to state of charge [SoC] - B60W 50/0097: {Predicting future conditions} - G01C 21/3822: {Road feature data, e.g. slope data} - G01C: MEASURING DISTANCES, LEVELS OR BEARINGS; SURVEYING; NAVIGATION; GYROSCOPIC INSTRUMENTS; PHOTOGRAMMETRY OR VIDEOGRAMMETRY (measuring liquid level G01F; radio navigation, determining distance or velocity by use of propagation effects, e.g. Doppler effects, propagation time, of radio waves, analogous arrangements using other waves G01S) - B60L: PROPULSION OF ELECTRICALLY-PROPELLED VEHICLES (arrangements or mounting of electrical propulsion units or of plural diverse prime-movers for mutual or common propulsion in vehicles B60K1/00, B60K6/20; arrangements or mounting of electrical gearing in vehicles B60K17/12, B60K17/14; preventing wheel slip by reducing power in rail vehicles B61C15/08; dynamo-electric machines H02K; control or regulation of electric motors H02P); SUPPLYING ELECTRIC POWER FOR AUXILIARY EQUIPMENT OF ELECTRICALLY-PROPELLED VEHICLES (electric coupling devices combined with mechanical couplings of vehicles B60D1/64; electric heating for vehicles B60H1/00); ELECTRODYNAMIC BRAKE SYSTEMS FOR VEHICLES IN GENERAL (control or regulation of electric motors H02P); MAGNETIC SUSPENSION OR LEVITATION FOR VEHICLES; MONITORING OPERATING VARIABLES OF ELECTRICALLY-PROPELLED VEHICLES; ELECTRIC SAFETY DEVICES FOR ELECTRICALLY-PROPELLED VEHICLES - B60W: CONJOINT CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUB-UNITS OF DIFFERENT TYPE OR DIFFERENT FUNCTION; CONTROL SYSTEMS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR HYBRID VEHICLES; ROAD VEHICLE DRIVE CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR PURPOSES NOT RELATED TO THE CONTROL OF A PARTICULAR SUB-UNIT ## Abstract A computer system for a heavy-duty vehicle has a fuel-cell system and an electrical energy storage system. The computer system comprises processing circuitry configured to identify a downhill portion of a trip to be undertaken by the heavy-duty vehicle, determine at least two candidate routes leading from a starting location along the trip to an onset of the downhill portion of the trip, predict a state of energy, SoE, of the battery system at the onset of the downhill portion for each candidate route, and select a proposed route out of the candidate routes at least in part based on the predicted SoE for each candidate route and on an estimated amount of energy regenerated by traversing the downhill portion of the trip. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A computer system for a heavy-duty vehicle comprising a fuel-cell system and an electrical energy storage system, ESS, wherein the computer system comprises processing circuitry configured to: identify a downhill portion of a trip to be undertaken by the heavy-duty vehicle, determine at least two candidate routes leading from a starting location along the trip to an onset of the downhill portion of the trip, predict a state of energy, SoE, of the ESS at the onset of the downhill portion for each candidate route, and select a proposed route out of the candidate routes at least in part based on the predicted SoE for each candidate route and on an estimated amount of energy regenerated by traversing the downhill portion of the trip. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The computer system according to claim 1, where the heavy-duty vehicle comprises a fuel-cell system arranged to preemptively charge the ESS prior to an uphill portion of a trip to be traversed by the heavy-duty vehicle. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The computer system according to claim 1, where the processing circuitry is configured to predict the SoE of the ESS at least in part by accounting for a predicted fuel cell charging operation along each candidate route. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The computer system according to claim 1, where the processing circuitry is configured to predict the SoE of the ESS at the onset of the downhill portion for each candidate route at least in part by identifying uphill portions along the candidate routes. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The computer system according to claim 1, where the processing circuitry is configured to implement a digital twin of the energy system of the heavy-duty vehicle, and to predict the SoE of the ESS at the onset of the downhill portion for each candidate route at least in part based on the digital twin. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The computer system according to claim 1, where the processing circuitry is configured to receive prerecorded SoE profile data from on-board data storage and/or from a remote server for at least a part of the trip. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) The computer system according to claim 6, where the processing circuitry is configured to predict the SoE of the ESS at the onset of the downhill portion for each candidate route based at least in part on the prerecorded SoE profile data. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The computer system according to claim 1, where the processing circuitry is configured to select the proposed route out of the candidate routes at least in part based on an energy storage capacity of the ESS. ### Claim 9 (depends on 8) The computer system according to claim 8, where the processing circuitry is configured to determine a current energy storage capacity of the ESS based at least in part on ambient temperature. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The computer system according to claim 1, where the heavy-duty vehicle comprises an energy dissipation device, where the processing circuitry is configured to select the proposed route out of the candidate routes at least in part based on an energy dissipating capacity of the energy dissipation device. ### Claim 11 (depends on 10) The computer system according to claim 10, where the processing circuitry is configured to determine a current energy dissipating capacity of the energy dissipation device based at least in part on a current temperature of the energy dissipation device. ### Claim 12 (depends on 1) The computer system according to claim 1, where the processing circuitry is configured to select the proposed route out of the candidate routes at least in part based on endurance braking capacity and/or a cooling capacity of a service brake system of the heavy-duty vehicle. ### Claim 13 (depends on 1) The computer system according to claim 1, where the processing circuitry is configured to propose an ESS discharge stop along the route prior to the downhill portion in case none of the candidate routes satisfies an SoE acceptance criteria at the onset of the downhill portion. ### Claim 14 (depends on 1) The computer system according to claim 1, where the starting location is a current location of the heavy-duty vehicle. ### Claim 15 (depends on 1) The computer system according to claim 1, where the processing circuitry is configured to record an SoE profile along the trip as function of location of the heavy-duty vehicle. ### Claim 16 (depends on 15) The computer system according to claim 15, where the processing circuitry is configured to transmit the recorded SoE profile along the trip to on-board data storage and/or to a remote server. ### Claim 17 (depends on 1) A heavy-duty vehicle comprising a computer system according to claim 1. ### Claim 18 A computer-implemented method performed by a computer system in a heavy-duty vehicle comprising a fuel-cell system and an electrical energy storage system, ESS, the method comprising identifying, by processing circuitry of the computer system, a downhill portion of a trip to be undertaken by the heavy-duty vehicle, determining, by the processing circuitry, at least two candidate routes leading from a starting location along the trip to an onset of the downhill portion of the trip, predicting, by the processing circuitry, a state of energy, SoE, of the ESS at the onset of the downhill portion for each candidate route, and selecting, by the processing circuitry, a proposed route out of the candidate routes at least in part based on the predicted SoE for each candidate route and on an estimated amount of energy regenerated by traversing the downhill portion of the trip. ### Claim 19 (depends on 18) A computer program product comprising program code for performing, when executed by the processing circuitry, the method of claim 18. ### Claim 20 (depends on 18) A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions, which when executed by the processing circuitry, cause the processing circuitry to perform the method of claim 18.