Optimal energy management under spatio-temporal constraints: an application to solar-powered vehicles

Journal article, 2026

This paper addresses a nonlinear optimal control problem for mission planning of long-range solar-powered electric vehicles to optimize trip time and energy management while subject to spatio-temporal constraints. The problem is formulated using first-principles modeling and solved through direct multiple shooting. The output is a driving profile that minimizes trip time while guaranteeing journey completion, constraint compliance and differentiability. The method is applied to a vehicle competing in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, a 3 022 km race across Australia, where the spatio-temporal constraints arise from the competition’s rules. Simulation results are compared with telemetric data collected during the competition.