A new method for collecting vehicle behaviour in daily use for energy and environmental analysis

Abstract

The power supply, fuel consumption, and noxious emissions of a vehicle depend on the use that is made of it. Usually [1] only the driving cycle is considered to be a sufficient way to gauge a vehicle’s usage. It is not, however, enough. Experimental tests have proved that, while similar driving cycles entail similar power demand, fuel consumption and emissions differ. In addition, a driving cycle, usually a synthesis [1–7] of several cycles collected experimentally, represents neither a specific link of the road network nor a specific user. Vehicle use must, accordingly, be described by something more comprehensive than the driving cycle, and this might be called the ‘use cycle’, for which a definition needed to be found. For a definition of the use cycle, all possible factors influencing vehicle emissions had to be examined. It was thus necessary to develop a tool both for gathering data that might reveal a different use of the vehicle and for identifying factors that might have an influence on emissions. The easiest, cheapest, and most versatile way to collect real data on the use of a vehicle is to use the vehicle’s own sensors connected to the on-board diagnostic (OBD-2) port. Readings from a GPS can provide some characteristics related to the vehicle’s position. This paper describes the development of a tool for collecting real-time OBD and GPS information. The acquisition tool was validated by a number of tests on a dynamometer chassis and differences are never higher than 3 per cent (e.g. on speed max 2 km/h). The first result obtained on vehicle usage is that driver behaviour influences throttle position independently of the driving cycle. Even with similar driving cycles, the accelerator pedal position and its variations turned out to be heavily different, suggesting a new definition of driver behaviour linked to the way the driver uses the pedals. Such pedal movement does have an influence on the air–fuel ratio, which remains stable around the stoichiometric value with ‘calm’ use of the accelerator, while it changes continuously, never becoming stoichiometric, with ‘aggressive’ accelerator behaviour. The continuous use of the developed tool on large fleets of vehicles will allow progress along this path and help define use cycles that may then be used by car manufacturers to design vehicles more efficient in their different uses and by the authorities to force more stringent homologation rules

Green Driver: Travel Behaviors Revisited on Fuel Saving and Less Emission

“…However, such models are sophisticated and complex, require massive amount of data and can be particularly used in a microscopic level studies. Technically, such models show that the standard deviation of accelerator pedal/throttle is lower and thus, it verifies the correlation between emissions and driving style [75]. In comparison to the earlier models, these models are formulated based on the acceleration and speed of vehicles under different driving operations, which are idle, acceleration, deceleration and steady-state cruising speed.…”

“…Driving behavior associated with vehicle operational characteristics; The literature states that vehicle factors, such as types of engine, fuels, engine capacity, maintenance, air conditioned and tire pressure, have been shown to have a significant impact on tailpipe emission and fuel consumption. For instance, a conventional car consumes 12.6 L/100 km fuel with an average CO 2 emission of around 260 g/km, while the hybrid car consumes 8.23 L/100 km fuel with an average CO 2 emission of 180 g/km [75]. Vehicle model selection (e.g., eco-car) has the largest effect on fuel economy.…”

Drive-style emissions testing on the latest two Honda hybrid technologies

“…The tool used for IMA and 2000 is exactly the one described in [6] and collects up to 5 engine and vehicle working parameters contemporary with a sampling frequency of 1 Hz; while for Hybrid the tool was updated to the CAN communication protocol and was able to collect any available parameters at 5 Hz sampling rate. In addition to the data collected from the (E)OBD connector, a GPS receiver contemporarily By contemporarily using CTL and Horiba tools it was possible to assess how the engine functioning conditions and the specific driver behaviour influenced both fuel consumption and instantaneous emissions.…”

Examination of Low-cost Systems for the Determination of Kinematic Driving Cycles and Engine Operating Conditions in Dublin, Ireland

“…With such concerns in mind, this Paper describes a lowcost system used to extract data from vehicles using the standard on-board instrumentation to develop a series of representative driving cycles, such that emissions, based on vehicle activity within the transport network, can be predicted [12]. Aggregation of emissions from individual vehicles in given parts of the city will permit a clearer understanding of vehicular emissions in the urban area.…”