Towing imposes substantial efficiency penalties on both battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) and internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, reducing range by 30-50%. This paper presents a proof-of-concept embedded control architecture for distributed trailer propulsion that actively regulates drawbar force to reduce towing loads. Unlike proprietary e-trailer systems requiring specialized hardware, the proposed implementation demonstrates feasibility using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components and open-source software.
The distributed architecture employs dual Raspberry Pi 4B single-board computers communicating via ROS 2 at 20 Hz. The trailer-mounted controller executes a Simulink-generated control node coordinating load cell acquisition (HX711 ADC), motor CAN bus telemetry, and throttle commands to a 5 kW BLDC traction motor powered by a 5 kWh LiFePO4 battery pack. A vehicle-mounted controller logs OBD-II/CAN validation data. The control pipeline implements cascaded EWMA/Hampel digital filtering with intentional phase lag for hitch-force regulation.
The system was validated through on-road testing with an ICE towing vehicle pulling a 1,000-lb trailer over standardized 2.1 km segments following SAE J1321 Type II procedures. Preliminary trials demonstrated stable control performance with drawbar force regulation with no oscillatory behavior. Fuel consumption measurements showed promising improvements (9.4% lower fuel consumption in assisted vs. baseline conditions), though limited sample size precludes definitive causal claims. The primary contribution is establishing technical feasibility of cost-effective COTS implementation (USD 5,000 hardware cost) for trailer propulsion control, providing a foundation for expanded validation studies and commercial deployment pathways.