Operating heavy duty vehicles under extreme heat conditions: A fuzzy approach for smart gear-shifting strategy

Heavy duty vehicles are vastly used in numerous fields such as public transportation, construction, logistics and military. The increased possibility of overheating the engine of such vehicles, when operating under extreme heat conditions, is a well-known and widely accepted problem which in turn results on stopping the vehicle and waiting to cool down. In this paper a novel fuzzy controller is presented that handles with such overheating issues. Several simulated experiments were performed in order to evaluate the controller´s applicability and performance in various terrains. Results show an improvement on the performance of each vehicle as well as the whole convoy.