Overview
Τhis research project aims to rationalise and improve the efficiency of urban freight transport, promote reduced energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while promoting economic savings and benefits. It will be an attempt for both countries to utilise the current technological advances for efficient transportation logistics that regional authorities and companies can use and afford in order to provide competitive traffic management decisions as well as improvements in terms of energy consumption and pollutant emissions.
More specifically, the objectives to be addressed in the course of the project are the following:
- Define and analyse factors that affect energy consumption and environmental impact.
- Develop a module to generate reliable network traffic and vehicle emissions maps.
- Develop a set of criteria and performance indicators to assist in assessing traffic management decision tools in order to implement economic and environmental beneficial traffic management strategies.
- Determine the parameters for emissions factors based on real-time information.
- Calibrate and update traffic data and emissions factors based on vehicle-level data.
- Real testing of the proposed traffic management decision tools through the development of pilot demonstration activities involving private actors from both Greece and Israel.
The proposed product utilises FCD (Floating Car Data) as a basis for calculating traffic flow conditions to calculate aggregate vehicle emissions at a “network” level using existing models (such as the ARTEMIS model) and calibrated emissions using real information at a “vehicle” level. This forms a win-win approach where public authorities (such that Municipalities) offer network traffic information for free and private transport companies provide real data at a vehicle level in return. This ensures product evolution using gradually improved and more accurate traffic models for decision making as it is depicted in the figure below. Hence, public authorities (such that Municipalities) will be able to assess the overall traffic and environmental improvements at a network level but also monitor the impact of measures at individual level.
In particular, FCD will serve as the basis for estimating traffic volumes and traffic composition. The traffic data, along with statistical fleet composition national and local data, will then be used for the calculation of vehicle-generated emissions at the network level. Vehicle traffic parameters and data provided by vehicles equipped with monitoring devices will be served as an input to the emissions model to generate the environmental footprint at the vehicle level. Supporting the evaluation process of various traffic management strategies will be achieved by the development of appropriate comparative performance indicators, reflecting both traffic efficiency aspects and environmental aspects and enabling a 'before and after' evaluation.
Funding
Results
This project leads to direct results, which calculate vehicle emissions in a 'network' and a 'vehicle' level for measuring and applying energy-efficient traffic management strategies. More specifically, the results are the following:
- Process for selecting and using traffic parameters (based on floating car data) to model pollutant emissions.
- Calibrated traffic data using real traffic information to calculate emissions based on existing models.
- Comparative performance indicators to evaluate the performance of different traffic management strategies and identify success and failure factors.
- A main pilot demonstrator covering topics related to fuel consumption and pollutant emissions with the aim to improve energy efficiency in urban freight transport and distribution.
Given the aforementioned results, the benefits for the partners include market expansion increasing the customer base and entering new segments of the market for the participating companies.
Technical Implications
Telematics system description for the measurement and evaluation of corporate emissions related to transportation activity
1. On board system
The on board system is a microcontroller based platform which will include the following features:
- GPS for obtaining information regarding the location of the vehicle
- Hardware interface for the interconnection between the on board system and the OBD and J1939 interfaces of the vehicle’s manufacturer
- Embedded Software protocol for the interconnection between the on board system and the OBD and J1939 protocols supported by the vehicle’s manufacturer
- Additional sensors potentially can be used to approve emissions measurements and acquisition of vehicle operations data
- GPRS modem for data transfer from the system to the central database
2. Emissions analysis tool for corporate
The tool receives emissions relative data from the on board units and provides analysis of the measured emissions data.
Emissions are categorized according to the business activity taking into account various dimensions of the business activity
- Assigned tonne-km
- Assigned transportation tasks
- Customers
- Driver profile
- Vehicle type and status
- Traffic conditions
The tool assists fleet operators to make assessments on the relation between their business activity and the fuel consumption and emissions. The time reaction for the assessment is near real time, allowing for direct evaluation of new transportation and distribution strategies that will improve the overall fuel consumption and emissions profile of the corporate.
The tool implementation is be based on web software technologies and will include reporting, notifications and user role functionality.
Readiness
The tool developed under this project can be used by companies with transportation activity in order to evaluate freight transportation strategies from the fuel consumption and emissions perspective and improve their operations by
- Selecting appropriate vehicle technology
- Evaluating driver profiles
- Providing focused training to drivers
- Improving scheduling and truck loading
- Selecting most appropriate itineraries
This project will deliver a telematics system with the appropriate Hardware and Software platforms that could acquire in real time emissions related data from “heavy duty” vehicles, in order to measure those emissions and furthermore compare the measured emissions to the assigned work at the business level. The business level evaluation is based on the following parameters
- Distance
- Load weight
- Traffic conditions
- Driver profile
- Vehicle status
The platform addresses Category III and Category II vehicles, however the measurement accuracy is improved on Category III. The necessary electronics and embedded software interfaces are developed in order to acquire fuel consumption and emissions data from OBD 2 vehicle manufactures interface (Category III). Compliance with J1939 protocol is also added in order to allow the use of the platform to Category II vehicles.