Multiobjective gear shifting optimization considering a known driving cycle

The reduction of the fuel consumption of the vehicles driven by combustion engines is a target of the automakers, governments and drivers. The literature asserts that the adjustment of the driver behavior results in a substantial fuel economy. Specifically, the gear shifting is one aspect of the driver behavior that can be changed by the use of support systems installed in the vehicle that indicate the right moment that the gear must be shifted. The interested community is focused on the development of the algorithms that are implemented in these support systems. These algorithms must be able to arbitrate between two antagonistic objective functions simultaneously: the maximization of the performance and the fuel economy. Thus, this paper demonstrates that it is possible to calculate the trade-off threshold between performance and fuel economy of a vehicle by means of the multiobjective optimization of the gear shifting considering a known driving cycle. To reach this objective, it is created a dynamic model of an automobile base on the literature data; the optimization algorithm implemented is Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm - II and the driving cycle used is described by the standards ABNT NBR6601:2012 and FTP-72.