Accurate energy consumption prediction is crucial for optimising the operation of electric commercial heavy-duty vehicles, particularly for efficient route planning, refining charging strategies, and ensuring optimal truck configuration for specific tasks. This study investigates the application of multi-task curriculum learning to enhance machine learning models for forecasting the energy consumption of various onboard systems in electric vehicles. Multi-task learning, unlike traditional training approaches, leverages auxiliary tasks to provide additional training signals, which has been shown to enhance predictive performance in many domains. By further incorporating curriculum learning, where simpler tasks are learned before progressing to more complex ones, neural network training becomes more efficient and effective. We evaluate the suitability of these methodologies in the context of electric vehicle energy forecasting, examining whether the combination of multi-task learning and curriculum learning enhances algorithm generalisation, even with limited training data. We primarily focus on understanding the efficacy of different curriculum learning strategies, including sequential learning and progressive continual learning, using complex, real-world industrial data. Our research further explores a set of auxiliary tasks designed to facilitate the learning process by targeting key consumption characteristics projected into future time frames. The findings illustrate the potential of multi-task curriculum learning to advance energy consumption forecasting, significantly contributing to the optimisation of electric heavy-duty vehicle operations. This work offers a novel perspective on integrating advanced machine learning techniques to enhance energy efficiency in the exciting field of electromobility.
The work was carried out with support from the Knowledge Foundation and Vinnova (Sweden's innovation agency) through the Vehicle Strategic Research and Innovation Programme FFI.