With the rapid development of integrated vehicle-road-cloud systems, RoadSide Units (RSUs) have become crucial for communication in Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs). However, RSU failures disrupt real-time vehicle-to-cloud connectivity, exacerbating traffic congestion and safety risks. Recently, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have emerged as a promising solution for temporary mobile base stations due to their rapid deployment and flexibility. Nevertheless, the open and dynamic nature of UAV-vehicle communication networks presents critical challenges in achieving both secure communication and lightweight authentication. Furthermore, the unsupervised deployment environment of UAVs makes them particularly vulnerable to physical attacks. To address these challenges, in this paper, we propose a secure and lightweight UAV-assisted vehicle authentication scheme based on quantum key. The scheme leverages quantum keys, hash functions and XOR to ensure secrecy and traceability of malicious entities. Utilising the Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) and fuzzy extractor to resist physical attacks. A private blockchain architecture is implemented for secure data storage and management. We verify the scheme’s security using the real-or-random (ROR) oracle model and the Scyther tool. The experimental results show that, compared to other schemes, our scheme has a lower overhead, with an average packet loss rate reduction of 11.42% – 28.8% and an average communication delay reduction of 14.41%–63%.

In vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs), efficient anonymous authentication and group key update schemes have always been a focal point of research. However, there remains significant room for improvement in ensuring privacy protection as well as the security and efficiency of key distribution. Therefore, this article proposes an efficient anonymous authentication and group key agreement scheme for vehicle–fog–cloud systems based on quantum random numbers. In this scheme: 1) the anonymous authentication of vehicles is generated by combining random numbers from the vehicle and the trusted authority (TA), thereby achieving privacy protection for vehicles during the registration and authentication process and 2) a method for generating and updating a group key is designed. By sharing Chebyshev chaotic mapping parameters, the vehicle and the road side unit (RSU) independently compute session keys, and the tasks of the group key calculation and updating are offloaded to the RSU, enabling the group key to update rapidly. This scheme ensures one-time encryption while achieving forward and backward security. Through security analysis and real-vehicle testing, the security and feasibility of the proposed scheme are demonstrated. Furthermore, compared to other schemes, as the number of vehicles increases, the computational overhead at the vehicle and TA remain almost unchanged, while the signaling overhead is reduced by nearly half.

Sliding mode control (SMC) algorithms in engineering applications necessitate the design of a sliding manifold to guide system motion. However, finding the optimal sliding manifold parameter (SMP) may be particularly challenging. While much of the research on SMC has focused on establishing a constant parameter for the sliding manifold, comparatively little is known about using a variable approach. In this article, we propose a predictive sliding control (PSC) algorithm that uses model predictive control (MPC) to determine the optimal SMP. The input to MPC is the SMC law with a sliding manifold variable parameter. In addition, the stability and robustness of the control system are analyzed in detail. The designed predictive sliding controller is applied to angle following of a steer-by-wire system installed on a self-driving vehicle. Experimental results and statistical analysis demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed control algorithm.

Near-field communication in VANETs can effectively reduce communication overhead compared to peer-to-peer communication. However, there is still plenty of room for improvements to be made to ensure identity authentication privacy protection and to enhance the security and efficiency of key distributions during transmissions. Therefore, this paper proposes an anonymous identity authentication and group key distribution scheme based on quantum random numbers. In the proposed scheme, (1) anonymous credentials for vehicles are generated by a combination of random numbers on the vehicle side and random numbers in the TA, and mutual recognition of vehicles and roadside identity is achieved through the TA in the form of zero-knowledge proof, which achieves privacy protection for the vehicle during authentication. (2) A combined key generation method was devised. The roadside and the TA in this case jointly generate the group key. The TA uses a previously filled quantum key to encrypt the group session key parameter GSPc generated by its quantum random number generator to ensure security, and the roadside obtains the group session key parameter GSPr by calculating the anonymous credentials of all legitimate vehicles to achieve fast updates of the group session key. This scheme achieves forward and backward security while guaranteeing one-at-a-time encryption. The signaling and computation overheads were calculated, and the signaling overhead was reduced by nearly half. In addition, the group key issuance time was significantly reduced compared with other schemes. Through formal security analysis and experimental verification, the security and feasibility of this protocol were proved.

With the rapid development of intelligent connected vehicles, networked vehicles carry a large amount of sensitive data. Secure authentication and controlled access to data in the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) are essential to protect vehicular private data. We propose a quantum-key-based authentication and key agreement scheme for IoV, called QKBAKA. Its features are as follows: 1) Role-Based Data Access Control Strategy: Access to private data requires authorization and management by vehicle owners. 2) Vehicle privatization manages quantum session keys. The quantum random number generator (QRNG) deployed on the vehicle side generates quantum session keys and realizes secure agreement through multilevel quantum keys. The multilevel quantum key includes the quantum prefilled key, the quantum protection key and the quantum session key. 3) Secure and Efficient Authentication Scheme: QKBAKA uses quantum keys, symmetric encryption algorithms, and hash algorithms. It is relatively secure for quantum computing and has better performance. Security analysis shows that QKBAKA is secure under the real-or-random (ROR) model and meets the security requirements of IoV. Performance evaluation shows that, compared with the existing schemes, QKBAKA reduces computation and communication costs by 74.83%–98.59% and 28.7%–83.1%. Simulation and real vehicle tests show that QKBAKA has good communication stability and feasibility.

An important function of the intelligent steer-by-wire requires a desired steering angle to be followed accurately. In this article, an algorithm-hybrid control is designed to realize the angle following in an electric motor steer-by-wire system, which is named as a model-tuned predictive backstepping control that consists of model tuning control, backstepping control and model predictive control. The model tuning control is used to adjust the variable modelling-term that includes the self-aligning torque, which means that some posteriori knowledge of the control system is utilized to make the model more accurate. The model predictive control is adopted to compute the variable stepping-parameters of the backstepping control, which means that some priori knowledge of the control system is utilized to optimize the control performance. Then we discuss a series of studies on the steer-by-wire system and the control algorithms that, collectively, develop an approach of how the hybrid control algorithm steers the front wheels based on a desired angle. The designed approach has been deployed into a steering control unit, and tested in a steering test vehicle to realize the angle following of electric motor steer-by-wire system. According to experimental results and statistics analyses, it can be concluded that the model-tuned predictive backstepping control is good candidate for the angle following control of steer-by-wire system.

With the rapid development of the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) and Intelligent Transportation, connected vehicles can access a variety of latency-sensitive cloud services to improve real-time road traffic conditions, driving safety and driving comfort. However, as the number of cloud service providers (CSPs) increases, vehicles and CSPs should efficiently complete authentication to ensure consistency and timeliness of IoV services. Moreover, many services are realized via public wireless channels, which are vulnerable to various security attacks and threats. Therefore, this paper proposes a secure and efficient authentication scheme for blockchain-enabled IoV based on quantum key distribution (QKD), called QBMA-BIV. The QBMA-BIV supports efficient authentication and re-authentication between vehicles and multiple servers through the lightweight signature algorithm and the quantum authentication keys. In QBMA-BIV, the authentication phase is achieved based on the QKD network and blockchain assistance, which is not dependent on third-party trusted centers and avoids the threat of a single point of failure. Furthermore, the security analysis demonstrates that QBMA-BIV could resist potential security attacks. Performance analysis also shows that QBMA-BIV could reduce computation and communication costs by 78.58%– 86.87% and 38.39%- 81.91% compared to related schemes. Simulation and experiments show that QBMA-BIV has outstanding feasibility.

In this article, based on a novel electro-hydraulic braking system for full self-driving vehicles, a model predictive control approach is designed for precisely tracking of braking pressure. Concerning electric motor, reduction mechanism, and hydraulic system, a new braking system model is formulated. Due to the nonlinear hydraulic characteristic of the master cylinder piston, a quadratic polynomial is utilized to fit a relationship between piston position and cylinder pressure, by which a desired pressure of master cylinder is transformed into a desired position of the piston. A recursive least square with forgetting factor is developed to find the optimal parameters of pressure–position relationship. A system friction model is established to calculate the equivalent friction torque, which is regarded as the compensation of the desired torque. A vehicle test bench of full self-driving is established to validate the designed approach. According to the accurate tracking and the quick response of braking pressure from experimental results, it can be concluded that the model predictive control approach is a good candidate for the pressure demand control of electro-hydraulic braking by wire.

Intelligent pedal control is a new development trend of vehicle intelligence, an important application of which is the single pedal control being the driving and braking inputs for energy management of battery electric vehicle. Usually, a constant pedal angle is used as the zero position that is a boundary between the driving and the braking. Based on the dynamic zero position that is a variable pedal angle depicting the direction switch point during pedal rotation, we show a single pedal control approach to operate the driving and the braking of battery electric vehicle, which can make full use of the pedal stroke and improve the control performance. Pedal torque demand is observed by a new pedal dynamics model that depicts the dynamic variation of pedal position. A nonlinear model predictive controller is designed to realize optimal-based energy management, satisfy dynamic demands, improve ride quality, and ensure wheel anti-slip safety. To validate the effect of the single pedal control approach, both simulations and real vehicle tests are carried out. The results illustrate that the energy consumption of single pedal control can be reduced than the dual pedal control in several representative driving cycles benefited from the more efficient use of regenerative braking.