IMplementation of Powertrain Control for Economic and Clean Real driving emIssion and fuel ConsUMption

Project Information

IMPERIUM

Grant agreement ID: 713783

DOI

10.3030/713783

Project closed

EC signature date 2 June 2016

Start date 1 September 2016

End date 31 August 2019

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport

Total cost

€ 9 915 291,94

EU contribution

€ 6 625 977,14

Coordinated by

AVL LIST GMBH
Austria

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - IMPERIUM (IMplementation of Powertrain Control for Economic and Clean Real driving emIssion and fuel ConsUMption)

Reporting period: 2018-03-01 to 2019-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Fuel economy is a key aspect to reduce operating costs and improve efficiency of freight traffic, thus increasing truck competitiveness. Under the coordination of AVL, the main objective of the IMPERIUM project is to achieve fuel consumption reduction up to 20% (diesel and urea) whilst keeping the vehicle within the legal limits for pollutant emissions. The IMPERIUM consortium, regrouping major European actors, is responsible for 45% of the heavy duty vehicles manufactured in the EU and is able to provide a 100% European value chain for the development of future powertrain control strategies for trucks.

Objective 1 - Methodology and simulation environment for assessing the performance of HD trucks in real-driving conditions

Objective 2 - Dynamic eHorizon system for Heavy Duty (HD) trucks

Objective 3 - Three advanced fuel efficient heavy duty Demonstrators, all integrating eHorizon and providing different approaches of Vehicle Control Units and powertrain configurations

Objective 4 - Analysis, consolidation and model-based validation of the IMPERIUM outcomes by means of in-vehicle fuel consumption and emissions measurements integrated into the proposed simulation environment

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Within the first period the simulation platform has been created and validated within WP1. Based on this, the reference vehicle MY2014 has been developed and IMPERIUMs target technologies have been introduced on a simplified basis to confirm the fuel consumption potential. The platform was extensively used for validation in WP6.
Use of predictive information as provided from the e-Horizon system is a vital input to the project. On one hand this information has been used within the simulation platform to introduce traffic scenarios, on the other hand the system itself has been improved and is integrated in the 3 OEMs demo trucks.
The Work Packages 3 to 5 started with the development of control concepts, firstly on requirements and problem formulation followed by initial implementation as control algorithms. Confirmation of interfaces and coordination between partners to establish an optimized closed control environment. The approach of the OEM work packages focused on different technology improvements what gave a wide range of possible technology steps for fuel consumption improvements. While some technology was implemented and tested directly on the trucks, some technologies have been validated on testbed only.

The IMPERIUM consortium is a broad consortium in which all key stakeholders are represented, such as developers/manufacturers of key components (eHorizon navigation, powertrain components, aftertreatment systems and control unit manufacturer), system integrators and three European OEMs with a broad range of Heavy Duty vehicles in their portfolio. EU-funded projects are pre-competitive, so advanced-research. The project results are important frontloading for series projects that deliver a product that goes into production.
During this project a success story for all of the 17 IMPERIUM assets has been created to provide rationale behind the innovation, short technical overview as well as expected impact of the respective asset.
These success stories provide a concise view of the exploitable outcomes as well as the respective strategies for industrialization.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Latest discussions in public as well as topics in technical conferences and publication show that the defined content is an enabler for fuel consumption reduction in future European Road Transport by a wide field of society. Therefore the project content and its further development and industrialization by the project partners will be a driver for fuel consumption reduction in long haul traffic. 
USA, Canada, China, Japan already have CO2 regulations for Heavy Duty vehicles in place. In May 2017, as part of its first mobility package of the Europe on the Move series, the European Commission proposed regulation for the monitoring and reporting of CO2 emissions and fuel consumption of new heavy-duty vehicles.
Under the regulation, all relevant CO2 certification information produced by manufacturers, including vehicle and component data, would be monitored, reported and published at EU level. According to the proposal of CO2 reduction, the future standards should be based on the CO2 values as calculated using the VECTO simulation tool. From early 2019 version, VECTO will include generic CO2 reduction rates as they are covered by the IMPERIUM project such as engine stop/start during vehicle stops, eco-roll and predictive cruise control.
The IMPERIUM strategy to deliver project innovations to the market is built on the following pillars:
- Provide iterative refinement and maturation of the proposed technology: The work plan consists of several milestones representing maturity gates of the technology and enabling intermediate evaluation. This approach enables a focus on industry needs (represented by the use cases) and a successive refinement and maturation of the proposed technology according to the project targets and proposed use cases.
- Provide innovations in line with industry (value chain) expectations: The IMPERIUM consortium provides a complete value chain (distributed over the consortium partners). Project results provide the opportunity for the partners to identify the respective needs and support integration of the proposed technology into their core business.
- Provide innovations in line with and integrated into existing technology available in the market: The IMPERIUM consortium comprises technology and tool providers for key technologies. These partners reinforce the proposed technology with respect to feasibility and integrate the most promising results into their technology portfolio and commercial products.
The results from the IMPERIUM shows significant higher potential for CO2 reduction with the consideration of traffic. Intensive effort was taken to develop a simulation platform covering interactive traffic scenarios and enable a validation of eHorizon-based measures for fuel consumption reduction. Although these measures currently are not reflected in VECTO and don’t lead to representative CO2 reduction, the impact of this technology on European roads is given.

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