Power control for vehicles

Abstract

A computer-implemented method determines a force control input for a vehicle combination comprising a tractor unit and at least one trailing unit. The method includes receiving a reference input representing a requested movement of the vehicle combination, determining a requested force input for one or more units of the vehicle combination from the reference input, determining a requested state of energy rate for one or more units of the vehicle combination, determining a state of energy rate allocated to one or more units of the vehicle combination, determining respective power losses associated with one or more units of the vehicle combination. The power losses are a function of a force provided by the unit. The force control input is determined such that a sum for the vehicle combination of a cumulative power loss and a cumulative difference between the requested state of energy rate and the allocated state of energy rate is below a threshold. The determined force control input meets the reference input for the vehicle combination.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.