top of page

Introduction

eCoMove concept is that of the “perfect eco-driver” travelling through the perfectly “eco-managed” road network (i.e., a combination of cooperative applications for eco-driving and eco-traffic management can – for any given trip by a particular driver in a particular vehicle – help to approach the theoretical least possible fuel consumption – all without compromising the quality of people’s and goods mobility.

The eCoMove innovations will target the two main sources of this avoidable fuel consumption – i.e., trips by private vehicles and those by goods vehicles, under three important domains:

  • Drivers’ behavior

  • Route choice

  • Traffic management

This is an All-in-one project which adopts latest V2I communication technologies to improve the energy utilization in road mobility by making the trips more intelligent and safer and energy efficient using the following solutions proposed by the project:

  1. Dynamic ecoSmartDriving “Virtual Coach”

  2. Dynamic eco-pre-TripPlanning and on trip Green Routing tools

  3. Eco Driver Coaching system

  4. ecoFleet Planning & Routing

  5. ecoAdaptive Balancing & Control system

  6. ecoMotorway Management

When combined, with interacting applications can potentially deliver up to 20% overall fuel savings and CO2 emissions reduction.

In a nutshell, the eCoMove project will tackle the problem of emission of greenhouse gases by applying the latest V2V & V2I technologies to create an integrated solution comprising eco-driving support and eco-traffic management using what are called “Cooperative Systems”. In order to achieve this reduction, the project will develop applications that tackle the inefficiencies responsible for energy waste in road transport.

Objective

To develop a combination of cooperative systems and tools using V2V & V2I communication to help:

  • Drivers sustainably eliminate unnecessary fuel consumption

  • Fleet managers manage their vehicles more economically and promote eco-driving through feedback and incentives.

  • Road operators balance traffic flows in the most energy efficient way.

  • Target is to reduce by 20% fuel consumption and therefore Carbon Dioxide emission.

Consortium

Background

The eCoMove project will tackle the problem of energy efficiency in road transport by applying the latest V2I & V2V technologies to create an integrated solution comprising cooperative eco-driving support and eco-traffic management. The project will focus on reducing wasted energy up to 20%.

The road transport sector alone is responsible for some 70% of all transport greenhouse gas emissions that in turn make up around 20% of global emissions. The main estimated contributing factors, which were targeted by eCoMove are listed below:

  • 22% Inefficient deceleration, lack of anticipation

  • 15% Congestion

  • 11% Driving too fast

  • 11% Inefficient traffic light control

  • 11% Poor management of construction sites, traffic incidents.

The eCoMove concept is that, by exchange of data describing their current state, both the vehicle (and the driver and the traffic system can benefit from extra information that helps them to perform better and to reduce their energy efficiency.

The eCoMove project will develop an eco-cooperative system built around information exchange via advanced V2V and V2I communication. Each eCoMove application will use cooperative data exchange, either as originator or recipient. In the system, an individual vehicle equipped with an on-board eco-driving system and communication platform can exchange data with infrastructure and other equipped vehicles. Likewise, an eCoMove roadside traffic management unit will be equipped with a fully compatible communication platform able to exchange data with equipped cars, trucks, etc.

This mutual data exchange is formalized in eCoMove by the definition of a number of eco-messages. eCoMove vehicles transmit an eco-Floating Vehicle Data (ecoFVD) message and receive eco Traffic Situation Data (ecoTSD) messages from infrastructure and ecoFVD messages from other vehicles.

As a part of proof of eCoMove concept, this concept was illustrated with 2 scenarios: first scenario describes a regular commuter’s trip by car, the second is a heavy goods vehicle delivering to a city-center supermarket.

The main users (or target group) that have been identified for the eCoMove systems are the following:

  • Drivers – both passenger car drivers as well as truck drivers.

  • Transport planners – for the freight and logistics firms

  • Road Operators – Traffic managers & traffic engineers.

Research Questions

  1. To what extent can eCoMove solutions decrease the fuel consumption and therefore also CO2 emissions of a vehicle / fleet / network with cooperative technologies?

  2. How can eCoMove sustainably change the behavior of private and professional drivers into an eco-friendlier driving style?

  3. What impact have eCoMove solutions in a cooperative environment for the traffic system of a city / region / network (smoothing of speeds, congestion avoidance, changes in travel distances and travel times)?

  4. What kind of information and guidance would a driver need in order to find the optimum driving strategy with respect to nearby vehicles and traffic lights, and how can they be predicted in the short and medium term?

  5. How are the principles of eco-driving different for a goods vehicle, and how can they be integrated into a self-learning driver coaching system that adapts for each driver of a particular vehicle?

Project Process / Methodology

Project has been divided into 6 sub-processes (SP) which are listed below

​

  1. SP1 - IP Coordination and Dissemination

  2. SP2 – Core Technology Integration

  3. SP3 – ecoSmart Driving

  4. SP4 – ecoFreight and Logistics

  5. SP5 – ecoTraffic Management & Control

  6. SP6 – Validation & Evaluation

  • SP3 - ecoSmart Driving: This sub-process is involved in developing smart cooperative system for smart driving for the passenger car and its driver to plan a trip in the most energy efficient way and, while being on trip, to drive the route with least amount of fuel, and to drive in the most fuel-efficient manner. One the trip is completed, ecoSmart Driving helps the driver to analyze and understand how the driver behavior has influenced fuel consumption of the vehicle.

  • SP4 ecoFreight & Logistics: Using this system, transport planner (or Logistics firms) can determine the most fuel-efficient daily (or weekly) ecoTours of all his vehicles based on a given set of transport orders. This system has two special functions: Truck ecoNavigation – driver will be advised to select that route with least traffic and least possible travel time. For this purpose, configuration / status of the vehicle and relevant traffic status information are considered to determine the most fuel-efficient route. ecoDriver Coaching System finally supports the driver to drive on the calculated route in the most fuel-efficient manner. Advantages of this system is mutually beneficial – fleet managers can extract fleet trends from the system and adapt consequently incentive and training strategies to ensure sustainable fuel-efficient driving among their fleet.

  • SP5 ecoTraffic Management and Control: This system is interconnected with systems of SP3 & SP4. This system evaluates information from both vehicles and infrastructure to formulate strategies to reduce the total fuel consumption in a network or on a specific corridor. Based on the evaluation, system shares the information like route or speed advice with the SP3 & SP4 systems through broadcasting media.

Inputs

  • On board units which monitors different vehicle parameters for cooperative systems - as per the vehicle manufacturer

  • Modular in-car fuel consumption monitoring device

  • Vehicle acts as a transceiver for V2X communications

  • Road side V2I trans-receivers to communicate with the vehicles

  • A management center to operate the logistics chain and center for data processing

  • Communication technologies like G5 for short-range and 3G for long range communications

Outputs

Project has brought out different state-of-the-art technologies as well as cooperative systems to provide different driver assisting advises to improve the driving style and targeting fuel consumption & emission reduction. In due course, these technologies have been developed to put into the test for several scenarios. These technologies and systems are as follows:​

  • eco-preTrip Planning: Advising optimal departure time and greenest route, in combination with energy relevant information about vehicle functions, for least impact journey.

  • ecoSmartDriving: This is a system that helps driver to plan a trip in the most energy efficient way, also while being on trip as well as the end of the trip with a short feedback on how the trip could have been improved. At the end of the trip, ecoSmartDriving helps the driver to analyze and understand how the driver behavior has influenced fuel consumption of the vehicle.

  • ecoMonitoring: Information derived from vehicles' post trip eco record is distributed in a fully anonymous way to the traffic control center, to identify energy blackspots;

  • ecoDriver Coaching: This is exclusively for commercial vehicle drivers including training and incentive scheme.

  • ecoTour Planning: This system is for logistics fleet management companies to define efficient tours considering drivers' eco-performance, vehicle payload and road infrastructure status

  • Truck ecoNavigation: Calculates the most fuel efficient route based on truck specific attributes and traffic state information.

  • ecoAdaptive Balancing & Control: This advices the firms with the strategies for energy optimised traffic distribution network and local levels.

  •  ecoAdaptive Traveller Support: This supports drivers by sending information on traffic state, route recommendations and speed profile data needed by on-board assistance systems.

  • ecoMotorway Management: measures for energy optimised flow management on the interurban network coupled with ramp metering and merging assistance at individual vehicle level.

Targeted Inefficiencies

Since the main goal / objective is to reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by 20% compared to the current situation. To be able to develop applications that can contribute to achieving this reduction, they had listed down known inefficiencies that can occur and in which situations they occur.

The inefficiencies are classified into: Pre-trip & on-trip.

​

Pre-trip inefficiencies

  • Inefficient vehicle condition: such as insufficient tire pressure, vehicle maintenance status, unnecessary weight, carriers that influence aerodynamics, tire conditions etc.

  • Inefficient route choice: reasons for such inefficiency could be lack of knowledge on traffic state on selected route, insufficient knowledge about route-alternative, or insufficient knowledge about factors influencing fuel consumption on the route.

  • Inefficient travel timing: choosing the traffic congested routes causes unnecessary high traffic time and fuel consumption as well.

  • Inefficient payload: Maximizing the payload (on volume or weight) of his vehicles is one of the main objectives of the transport planner. Thereby a high payload does not necessarily mean high efficiency. Only the use of the right vehicle under the right conditions with an optimum payload leads to the higher efficiency. Finding this ideal combination will be main objective for the ecotour Planning system.

 

On-trip inefficiencies

  • Inefficient use of electrical energy consumers

  • Inefficient on-trip vehicle condition: reduction in tire pressure during driving, driving with open windows etc.

  • Inefficient routing caused by sudden traffic congestion, lane changing behavior, traffic signals, external influences like loading & unloading or traffic situations, or due by the situation at the chosen destination.

  • Inefficient acceleration

  • Inefficient deceleration

  • Inefficient (unnecessary) idling

  • Inefficient speed, gear / rpm

  • Unnecessary stops

On the other hand, there are some inefficiencies / ideas that are outside the boundaries of the eCoMove project and will therefore not be targeted:

  • Bad occupancy of vehicles – motivating people for car sharing or car pooling initiatives are not addressed

  • Trying to prevent a trip

  • Inefficiency due to non-optimal modality choice

  • Inefficiencies due to controlling vehicle longitudinal control: Since the system boundary for the eCoMove project excludes autonomous driving or controlling vehicle functions, this falls outside the scope of the project.

Benefits

The project has registered several benefits out of which the highlighting ones are mentioned below:

  1. eCoMove systems were able to record 10% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions during peak traffic hours.

  2. On an average, fuel consumption was reduced by 15% in passenger cars & by 9 to 10% in trucks.

  3. Unnecessary travel time was also cut down by 13%, again at peak traffic hours with appropriate ecoNavigation advices

Limitations

  • Besides the limitation that eCoMove does not want to influence the mobility demand another important constraint of the eCoMove project is that it is not targeted to automatically control the vehicle. The impact of the eCoMove project should be achieved by influencing the driver and to help him / her change his / her driving behavior and provide support for secondary driving tasks (e.g. routing).

  • This means that solutions that contain autonomous driving or autonomous platooning are outside the project scope and will not be included.

  • Another important limitation for the project is that it will not be possible to change the road network as such within the scope of the project.

Documents:

Evaluation Form

bottom of page