EcoRouting Strategy Using Variable Acceleration Rate Synthesis Methodology

This paper focuses on the analysis of an EcoRouting system with minimum and maximum number of conditional stops. The effect on energy consumption with the presence and absence of road-grade information along a route is also studied. An EcoRouting system has been developed that takes in map information and converts it to a graph of nodes containing route information such as speed limits, stop lights, stop signs and road grade. A variable acceleration rate synthesis methodology is also introduced in this paper that takes into consideration distance, acceleration, cruise speed and jerk rate as inputs to simulate driver behavior on a given route. A simulation study is conducted in the town of Blacksburg, Virginia, USA to analyze the effects of EcoRouting in different driving conditions and to examine the effects of road grade and stop lights on energy consumption. The results show that the synthesis with a piecewise jerk model simulates better driver behavior over a route and removes the hurdles associated with a piecewise acceleration model. The EcoRoute solution is found to vary with the information given to the input of the variable acceleration rate model. The synthesis and the results that are obtained show that external parameters affect the overall energy consumption of a vehicle and how EcoRouting can significantly reduce vehicle energy consumption.