Increasing Energy Efficiency of Connected Cars


October 3, 2015

Ardalan Vahidi
Associate Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Clemson University

Friday, October 2, 2015, 11:00 am
800 22nd Street NW, SEH B1220
Washington, DC 20052

Hosted by: Dr. James Lee ([email protected])

Abstract:

The U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has recently announced that it will begin taking steps to enable vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication technology for light vehicles. This technology is mainly aimed towards improving safety by allowing vehicles to "talk" to each other and ultimately avoid many crashes altogether by exchanging data, such as speed and position. But collision avoidance is only one of the benefits of connected vehicle technologies. According to a report released recently by the Intelligent Transportation Society of America, connectivity of vehicles to each other and to roadside equipment could save 420 million barrels of oil over 10 years. That also reduces CO2 emissions by roughly 70 million metric tons.  

This talk takes a closer look at these potentials and summarizes our recent findings on the positive impact of look-ahead information, such as traffic and terrain preview, on energy saving of “connected’’ vehicles with conventional or hybrid-electric powertrains. Relying on optimal control theory we present methodologies that reduce energy use by taking advantage of ambient information.

In one experimental case study, we show that by communicating the state of traffic signals to a connected car the idling times at red lights are reduced and energy efficiency is increased. Obtaining the timing of traffic lights is one of the main challenges of this work. In this case study we successfully “crowed-source” traffic signal timings from statistical patterns in motion of connected vehicles in the city of San Francisco.

Biographical Sketch:

Ardalan Vahidi is an associate professor with the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Clemson University, South Carolina. He received the Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 2005, the M.Sc. degree in transportation safety from The George Washington University, Washington, DC, in 2002, and B.S. and M.Sc. degrees in civil engineering from Sharif University, Tehran, Iran, in 1996 and 1998, respectively. In 2012–2013 he was a Visiting Scholar with University of California, Berkeley and a Visiting Researcher with BMW Group Technology Office USA in Mountain View, CA. His general research interests include control of vehicular and energy systems, and connected vehicle technologies.