Project: EXPERT SYSTEM FOR A MORE EFFICIENT ROAD TRANSPORTATION
The professional road transportation sector, of both passengers and goods, is essential to guarantee Europe’s social and economical growth, and to achieve a better territorial cohesion. Nevertheless, the sector’s energy consumption has an outstanding impact on the global energy consumption of European countries, on transportation companies cost structure, and of course, on C02 and other pollutant emissions._x000D__x000D_It is therefore essential to boost this sector’s energy efficiency and reduce its energy consumption, in order to improve competitiveness and to guarantee sustainability. Besides alternative fuels (hydrogen, hybrids, etc.), many studies emphasize the importance of 3 factors to achieve this objective:_x000D__x000D_1- Adapting new driving habits, identified under a series of guidelines known by the term “Efficient Driving”. Many scientific papers conclude that up to 20% fuel savings can be obtained by a more efficient driving._x000D__x000D_2- Proper mobility management, optimizing routes and resource assignment, and assuring trucks and buses follow the scheduled routes._x000D__x000D_3- By following COtenance plans rigorously, assuring vehicles are always in optimal conditions._x000D__x000D_The EXPERT project will focus on these key 3 aspects, developing a set of proactive tools that will help in achieving an optimization in the performance of road transportation as well as minimizing its harmful effects. _x000D__x000D_Data acquired from different sources, both on board vehicles, and arriving from the transportation company’s information system, will be processed in real time and presented to drivers by a user friendly interface called the “EXPERT Co-Pilot”. Alarms will be presented to drivers when inefficient driving situations are detected, and hints will be offered to improve performance and to adhere to “Efficient Driving” guidelines. Drivers will also be warned of other inefficiency-leading situations, such as driving off planned routes, and pending vehicle COtenance tasks. _x000D__x000D_Results obtained on board trucks and buses will be sent to company headquarters using wireless communication, so immediate actions can be taken if required. All data received at company headquarters will be stored in a central database and presented by the EXPERT Headquarters Information System, which will provide detailed information on performance per truck and driver, leading to an overall best practices attitude within the transportation company._x000D__x000D_The CO sources of on board data to be analyzed in real time will be the vehicle’s Can-Bus and the vehicle’s Digital Tachograph. Interfaces to these two electronic devices will be developed for the project. A GPS and GPRS/UMTS enabled Black Box will be developed to receive and store data from these interfaces, as well as data regarding planned route and pending COtenance tasks received from company headquarters._x000D__x000D_The design of the real time multi-variable analysis algorithms involved in the evaluation of driver efficiency will be a challenge. Besides “standard” input variables obtained from Can-Bus and Digital Tachograph (fuel consumption, use of brakes, etc.) we will include other relevant data such as slope, acceleration and deceleration (obtained from GPS), traffic density (obtained from real time traffic information systems) and amount of load (obtained from company’s fleet management system)._x000D__x000D_The 6 key components to develop for EXPERT are:_x000D_1- The CAN-BUS Interface_x000D_2- The Digital Tacograph Interface_x000D_3- The EXPERT black-box_x000D_4- The Expert Driving Efficiency Module (R&D multi-variable analysis algorithms)_x000D_5- The EXPERT Co-Pilot_x000D_6- The Headquarters Information System_x000D_7- The XML Interface (for integration with existing corporate fleet management systems)_x000D__x000D_To conclude, in order to statistically evaluate the impact of EXPERT, during the final phase of the project we will perform a study involving 80 drivers.
| Acronym | EXPERT (Reference Number: 5192) |
| Duration | 01/06/2010 - 01/06/2012 |
| Project Topic | EXPERT is an on-board and headquarters-based proactive system targeting fuel consumption reduction in road transportation, by promoting efficient driving, indications of pending vehicle COtenance tasks, and adhesion to planned routes. |
|
Project Results (after finalisation) |
The result of the project is a distributed system to assist drives in the road transportation sector to improve their driving efficiency by offering aids in real time and tools for analysis to be used at the company office. The system has been tested successfully in real life scenario at two Spanish transportation companies and by a leading worldwide automotive supplier for Driveline and Chassis Technology in Germany (ZF Friedrichshafen AG / Openmatics s.r.o.). |
| Network | Eurostars |
| Call | Eurostars Cut-Off 3 |
Project partner
| Number | Name | Role | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | CLUETEC GmbH | Partner | Germany |
| 5 | EASYTECH S.L. | Coordinator | Spain |
| 5 | Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Angewandten Forschung e.V. | Partner | Germany |
| 5 | GTS-THAUMAT XXI S.A. | Partner | Spain |
| 5 | INMARK ESTUDIOS Y ESTRATEGIAS S.A. | Partner | Spain |