Can you imagine a daily-commute that is chaotic free? Organized and ordered? Well, connected and automated vehicles can someday make such imagination true by providing relief via adjustment to driving conditions that is driver-free!
When a car speeds up in front of you, your car would accelerate. But, when the car in front of you attempts to slow down screeching to a halt--your car would stop as well.
To enable such technology of the future, researchers at the University of Delaware are seeking to use control theory to create algorithms. "We are developing solutions that could enable the future of energy efficient mobility systems," explains Andreas Malikopoulos, the Terri Connor Kelly and John Kelly Career Development Professor of Mechanical Engineering. "We hope that our technologies will help people reach their destinations more quickly and safely while conserving fuel at the same time."
Image Credit: University of Delaware/ Owen Fitter
“Andreas Malikopoulos tests technologies for connected and automated vehicles on a smaller scale at the University of Delaware's Scaled Smart City (UDSSC) testbed.”-ScienceDaily
The technology could someday enable cars to communicate with each other for traffic pattern coordination. In collaboration with Boston University, the researchers developed a solution for energy consumption management in connected and automated vehicles crossing at urban intersection that were free from traffic signals. According to the results published in Automatica, their framework methodology enabled connected and automated vehicles to conserve momentum and fuel all while improving travel time.
Watch this video below to learn more about self-driving cars:
Now, in another collaboration with the University of Virginia, researchers formulated a solution to avoid rear-end crashes. The solution will yield the optimal acceleration and deceleration in a speed reduction zone.
Funding for the research studies were supported from the U.S. Department of Energy programs -- the Smart Mobility Initiative and the Advanced Research Projects Agency -- Energy's NEXTCAR program.
Source: IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Vehicles, ScienceDaily