Browse Topic: Congestion
The conventional process of last-mile delivery logistics often leads to safety problems for road users and a high level of environmental pollution. Delivery drivers must deal with frequent stops, search for a convenient parking spot and sometimes navigate through the narrow streets causing traffic congestion and possibly safety issues for the ego vehicle as well as for other traffic participants. This process is not only time consuming but also environmentally impactful, especially in low-emission zones where prolonged vehicle idling can lead to air pollution and to high operational costs. To overcome these challenges, a reliable system is required that not only ensures the flexible, safe and smooth delivery of goods but also cuts the costs and meets the delivery target. In the dynamic landscape of last-mile delivery, LogiSmile, an EU project, introduced a solution to urban delivery challenges through an innovative cooperation between an Autonomous Hub Vehicle (AHV) and an Autonomous
This research investigates platoon dispersion characteristics in mixed-traffic flow of autonomous and human-driven vehicles. It presents a cellular automata-based platoon dispersion model. The study’s key findings are as follows: platoon dispersion initially increases and then decreases with the rise in autonomous vehicle proportions. When the autonomous vehicle proportion is approaching 100%, platoon dispersion descends rapidly and is completely eliminated while the proportion is 100%. Compared to platoon consisting entirely of human-driven vehicles, the peak value of standard deviation of vehicle speed is 1.71 times and the travel time drops by 38.19% when the proportion is 1. Moreover, the lane-changing behavior enhances platoon speed, acceleration, and space utilization at micro- and macrolevels by optimizing space resource allocation within the platoon. The study employs a two-lane mixed-flow platoon dispersion model that assumes uniform vehicle characteristics and prioritizes
General Motors (GM) is working towards a future world of zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion. It’s “Ultium” platform has revolutionized electric vehicle drive units to provide versatile yet thrilling driving experience to the customers. Three variants of traction power inverter modules (TPIMs) including a dual channel inverter configuration are designed in collaboration with LG Magna e-Powertrain (LGM). These TPIMs are integrated with other power electronics components inside Integrated power electronics (IPE) to eliminate redundant high voltage connections and increase power density. The developed power module from LGM has used state-of-the art sintering technology and double-sided cooled structure to achieve industry leading performance and reliability. All the components are engineered with high level of integration skills to utilize across TPIM variants. Each component in the design is rigorously analyzed and tested from component to system levels to ensure high
Getting warehouse robots to and from their destinations efficiently while keeping them from crashing into each other is no easy task. It is such a complex problem that even the best path-finding algorithms struggle to keep up with the breakneck pace of e-commerce or manufacturing. In a sense, these robots are like cars trying to navigate a crowded city center. So, a group of MIT researchers who use AI to mitigate traffic congestion applied ideas from that domain to tackle this problem
In a world increasingly concerned with environmental sustainability and traffic congestion, the need for innovative solutions to address daily commuting challenges has become paramount. This paper presents an innovative concept for an application/system that seeks to revolutionize the way corporate employees commute to work. By harnessing the power of data and technology, this application aims to reduce pollution, traffic, and fuel consumption while promoting shared transportation solutions among employees. The paper discusses the key features and benefits of this proposed application and its potential to create a greener and more efficient corporate commuting ecosystem
India is a highly populous country. The traffic problems faced by the people here are not uncommon. The increase in traffic leads to increase in accidents, pollution, inconvenience and frustration. It also comes with costs of additional fuel and time. Though public transport is extensively available in India, still it isn't sufficient for the population of India. Especially in Metro cities, public transport services are often crowded. So, to travel peacefully people are opting for commuting in their own vehicles. And as a result, more vehicles are coming on roads. Other major reasons for increasing traffic are lack of proper implementation of traffic rules and traffic signals out of sync. In addition to city traffic, congestion is also seen on highways, mainly at toll plazas. Although implementation of FASTag has reduced it to some extent, some toll plazas still face traffic congestion issues. This paper provides an idea to ease the traffic problems in the city and on the highways too
To mitigate the repercussions arising from traffic accidents on highways and prevent the cascading effect of queued vehicles, a comprehensive model is devised. This model is built upon the foundation of a traffic accident impact determination framework, which considers the merging capacity at entry lanes, as well as a dynamic and adaptable variable speed limit model to dissipate queuing congestion. The objective is to promptly restore vehicle flow after accidents, thereby eradicating queueing effects in the affected zone. The efficacy of this approach has been validated using data from the Sutong Bridge accident, and its effectiveness in eliminating vehicle queues has been verified through simulation data in the SUMO platform. Analysis of average speeds before and after implementing varying speed limits reveals that the proposed method can significantly enhance overall traffic efficiency by 37%. Moreover, the model’s versatile parameters demonstrate good applicability, providing
Micromobility is often discussed in the context of minimizing traffic congestion and transportation pollution by encouraging people to travel shorter (i.e., typically urban) distances using bicycle or scooters instead of single-occupancy vehicles. It is also frequently championed as a solution to the “first-mile/last-mile” problem. If the demographics and intended users of micromobility vary largely by community, surely that means we must identify different reasons for using micromobility. Micromobility, User Input, and Standardization considers potential options for standardization in engineering and public policy, how real people are using micromobility, and the relevant barriers that come with that usage. It examines the history of existing technologies, compares various traffic laws, and highlights barriers to micromobility standardization—particularly in low-income communities of color. Lastly, it considers how engineers and legislators can use this information to effectively
There has been a radical shift in the way individuals commute. The growing interest in the comfort and luxury of private vehicles has resulted in severe traffic congestion, a major concern worldwide. India, a highly populous country, requires public transportation that can attract and provide seamless, affordable, fast, and secure commutes to its citizens while remaining sustainable and environmentally friendly. An analysis of the Indian Railway shows the need and demand for a high-speed transport system. High-speed rails have always garnered attention for their speed, technology, and communication capabilities. Hyperloop technology is one such endeavor that has piqued the world's interest. Hyperloop is a futuristic mode of transportation currently under development. It has a floating pod that races along inside giant low-pressure tubes, either above or below ground. The testing pod is capable of covering 400 m in 15 s under a preliminary experiment. This study examines the overview of
Global warming, pollution, dependence on foreign oil resources and rising petroleum prices are major issues the nations facing today. Increasing density of IC engine powered vehicles, urban air pollution, traffic congestion and wastage of valuable land for parking have negative impact economically, ecologically and politically. Moreover, an increasing preference for personal mobility, owing to the pandemic and social distancing norms has witnessed notable growth in automobile sales. Hence, a strategy to replace conventional vehicles is urgently required by electric vehicles, which is one of the most promising alternative technologies. Governments also recognized the value of electric mobility in building a cleaner, smarter and more sustainable future cities. Adoption of low-cost, light weight and low power electric vehicles designed for the city environment can considerably reduce the impact of personal mobility not only by reducing energy consumption but also by minimizing the use of
Nowadays, the technology war always shows the need for rushing hours in the transportation sector. Turbines and IC engines, which generate power, can only be operated with the help of high-pressure air. In this research, an analytical study introduces an innovative boat vehicle driven by air-water interactions. The principles of an OWC (Oscillating Water Column) wave energy converter device is reviewed to find the effects of air-water interactions that are the key concepts for introducing the partially levitated transportation method. The physical conditions around the boat vehicle, such as squat conditions and speed variations, are reviewed under different stream conditions to explore the possibilities of converting the potential energy of water into kinetic energy under dynamic conditions. An experimental Froude - model analysis is presented to find the velocity and kinetic energy at upstream and downstream conditions of the channel. A 1D analytical method using Matlab is performed
If every commuter drove the same few roads at the same time every day, the traffic would be unbearable. That’s exactly what’s happening in the skies above the nation, called the national airspace (NAS). Multiple flights from different airlines try to use the most direct flight paths, converging on the same airports. With limited runway space, that causes jumbo-sized traffic congestion. So, NASA worked with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), commercial airlines, and airports to develop and test a new program to manage airport traffic on the ground — the Integrated Arrival, Departure, and Surface (IADS) system. In 2022, the FAA began incorporating IADS capabilities at 27 of the busiest airports in the country
To reduce carbon emissions and mitigate traffic congestion in urban environments, new innovative transportation concepts are required. While public transportation covers certain segments, it cannot supply all possible routes, use cases, and preferences and hence, other solutions are needed as well. Urban drive missions are not typically calling for huge powers or even large energy capacities. In the vehicle design, this should be shown as rightsizing. It is not only the powertrain that should be rightsized but also the vehicle physical dimensions, to enable, e.g., convenient maneuvering. Furthermore, due to the variety of options (walking, biking, scooters, public transportation etc.), one might need a personal vehicle only occasionally, and therefore, a vehicle with shared and multipurpose capabilities would be an asset. Lastly, since small urban vehicles are considered unsafe, improving the safety and general confidence on small vehicles is vital for the market penetration
OTA (over the air) updates help automotive manufacturers to reduce vehicle warranty and recall costs. Vehicle recall is expensive, and many automotive manufacturers have implemented OTA updates. Updating parameters for connected vehicles can be challenging when dealing with thousands of vehicles across different regions. For example, how does the manufacturer prioritise which vehicles need updating? Environmental and geographical factors affect degradation rates and vehicles in hotter regions or congested cities may degrade faster. For EVs, updating the BMS (battery management system) parameters requires careful analysis prior to the update being deployed, to maximise impact and reduce the likelihood of adverse behaviour being introduced. The analysis overhead increases with the number of vehicles. This is because it requires simulation and optimisation of the fleet BMS calibration in a digital twin environment. A targeted approach is the best option to prioritise vehicles for software
Hydrostatic torque modulation is a new, at moment theoretical approach, to developing advanced AWD4WD transmissions. The basic component is a rotational hydrostatic modulator. It is derived from a low-speed high-torque hydrostatic machine. As such, it can be integrated into a standard mechanical AWD4WD transmission as a replacement for the clutch, where torque is controlled through energy dissipation. Controlled by a simple solenoid valve, it provides torque vectoring with a reaction time shorter than 0.5 s, and it provides additional safety features that result in a more robust AWD4WD transmission. As it can modulate torque with energy flow control/transfer, it offers much more than existing systems based on controlled clutches. Specifically, hydrostatic torque modulation, when it is integrated into the AWD4WD transmission, brings CVT or ICT performance. As torque modulation is performed through the control of the energy flow, it provides torque control from 0 km/h without using a
Urban air mobility (UAM) refers to urban transportation systems that move people by air. UAM offers the potential for reducing traffic congestion in cities and providing an integrated approach to urban mobility. With the emergence of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, drone technology, and the possibility of automated aircraft, interest in this topic has grown considerably for private sector solution providers—including aerospace and technology companies—as well as urban planners and transportation professionals. Unsettled Issues Concerning Urban Air Mobility Infrastructure discusses the infrastructure requirements to effectively integrate UAM services into the overarching urban transportation system to enable multimodal trips and complete origin to destination travel. Click here to access the full SAE EDGETM Research Report portfolio
The future of bus transit in new millennium is promising. This optimism is based on an anticipated long-term slowdown in growth of suburbs and revitalization of central cities. It reflects and escalates the public concern with traffic congestion, sprawl and pollution. This calls for double the use of public transport to address above issues. It calls for changing the mind-set of society towards public transports like buses, coaches etc. This could happen if bus design ensures right comfort, safety and TCO by ensuring refined bus transport. Hence, it is responsibility of OEMs to provide the new generation buses and coaches, which will ensure the public demands of comforts in terms of NVH refinement. This paper covers the unique approach used to convert the existing bus NVH refinement to next level as a short-term solution and with the intention of articulating NVH strategies for new generation bus development. This work explains combined experimental and simulation approach deployed
The article proves the necessity for heating the air in the pneumatic engine of a hybrid power unit designed for moving a compact wheeled vehicle. The aim is to improve the pneumatic engine operation indicators by heating the compressed air before it is supplied to the cylinder using the obtained theoretical and experimental studies. For the easy-to-use of assessing the effectiveness of heating the air supplied to a pneumatic engine, the experiments were carried out by two pressure ps = 0.7 MPa and ps = 0.9 MPa, according to them the testing of a pneumatic unit was conducted without heating the compressed air at the temperature equal to the ambient temperature Ts = 293 K. Also, during the experiments a pneumatic engine was tested at other temperatures while supplying the compressed air at the inlet to the engine cylinder. So, at an inlet pressure ps = 0.7 MPa, the compressed air was heated up to the temperature Ts = 383 K, and at a pressure ps = 0.9 MPa it was heated up to the
Traffic congestion and the resulting socio-economic losses, air pollution, etc. have been the pivotal factors that hinders the development of many cities. It is essential to develop route guidance to provide drivers with optimal routes to the destinations with a low congestion and a great road capacity to alleviate traffic congestion on the road network. This paper proposed a novel route guidance algorithm for individuals based on the connected vehicle (CV) in the vehicle infrastructure cooperative environment, providing drivers with real-time route selection, thereby alleviating the congestion of the road network, more importantly, realized the route guidance for individuals through microscopic traffic simulation software, VISSIM, and VISSIM COM interfaces, and evaluate the effects and influencing factors of individual route guidance. The methodology first developed an application program to analyze the road network, which could obtain any specified number of alternate route sets
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