With increasing and tightening requirements on the control and optimization performance, the traditional control and optimization strategies may not qualify in many application problems. To meet the challenges and requirements, advanced control and optimization methodologies should be employed or developed. Here, the advanced control and optimization denote the ones which, in principle, can best achieve the objectives in the presence of nonlinearities, highly interactivities, or newly emerged operating circumstances. As the advanced control and optimization will provide a basis for the design and operation of practical systems, these advanced techniques would result in substantial and sustainable benefits.

The overall aims of this special issue are two-fold: (1) to provide an up-to-date overview of the research directions in the advanced control and optimization and (2) to illustrate how to formulate problems from automotive systems and develop suitable theory to solve the corresponding problems. Of particular interest the papers in this special issue are devoted to the development of advanced control and optimization including network control, nonlinear model predictive control, dynamic programming, and integral programming, with applications to complex automotive systems including vehicle dynamics and control, combustion and emission control, and vehicle integration and optimization. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Network analysis and protocol optimization
• Fast nonlinear model predictive control and optimization
• Advanced vehicle dynamics and control
• Intelligent systems and mobility
• Advanced vehicle integration and optimization
• Robust and optimal control
• Information constraints and faults