Data Acquisition System for Vehicle Fuel Economy Measurement

Acquiring and recording real-world vehicle operating and environmental conditions is becoming increasingly important for determining techniques to reduce fuel consumption and other operating costs. The operational characteristics of vehicles has been the object of considerable study, which has included component and vehicle tests under controlled conditions, and computer simulation. The selective gathering of pertinent information under in-service conditions has heretofore not been practicable nor reliable. This paper describes the use of Rockwell International's Tripmaster^tm on-board Instrumentation System applied to obtaining this information for use in the DOT/SAE Fuel Economy measurement study.