On-road Trials Research Articles

Cooperative truck platooning trial on Canadian public highway under commercial operation in winter driving conditions

Cooperative truck platooning, a convoy of trucks driving together while communicating and coordinating with each other, represents a technology-driven approach to improve energy conversion efficiency, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and enhance road safety. Despite numerous studies have explored these potentials, there is a scarcity of empirical investigations into on-road cooperative truck platooning during commercial operations, particularly in winter driving conditions. This paper presents the findings of an experimental study on the first commercially focused truck platooning implementation on a Canadian public highway in the winter season, using two SAE level 2 class 8 trucks. The on-road trials took place on the Queen Elizabeth II Highway, between Calgary and Edmonton, with ambient temperatures ranging from −27°C to 12°C, and truck weights spanning 16–39 tons. Nine well-trained and experienced drivers conducted 41 incident-free (platooning and baseline) test trips, covering a distance of 22,855 km. The experimental results confirmed the feasibility of operating commercial truck platooning with 3–5 s time gaps on public roads during the Canadian winter season including various road surface conditions. The results also show that the platooning engagement ratio reached up to 88.9%, with an average of 61.6% across 25 platooning trips. Furthermore, the follower truck achieved a 1.6% fuel savings on flat road sections during platooning, but its freight transportation specific fuel consumption was higher than that of the lead truck on hilly terrain. Test results indicate the lighter truck exhibited higher specific nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions. Moreover, the frequent engagement and disengagement of the cooperative truck platooning system had adverse effects on the powertrain system of the truck, leading to increased fuel consumption and engine-out NOx emissions. This study provides real-world data to identify limitations and needed areas for improvement in adapting cooperative truck platooning technology to commercial operations on public roads.

In their own words: A qualitative study of users’ acceptance of connected vehicle technology after nine months of experience with the technology

The Ipswich Connected Vehicle Pilot (ICVP) was the largest on-road trial of connected vehicle technology in Australia. In the ICVP, 355 privately-owned vehicles were outfitted with connected vehicle technology and driven for 9 months with 326 participant vehicles remaining in the study until completion. User acceptance is as a key determinant of the future effectiveness of connected and co-operative Intelligent Transport systems (C-ITS) given it impacts likely uptake of these vehicles and the optimal functioning of such systems is contingent on widespread uptake by the public. This paper presents the findings of two qualitative studies conducted as part of the ICVP, comprising 53 individual interviews and 14 focus groups/interviews with 47 participants. The purpose of the qualitative studies was to understand users’ perceptions of the system as well as their acceptance of C-ITS in general. Overall, participants were generally positive towards the system, could appreciate the safety benefits it offers, and expressed interest in adopting the technology presuming future systems would be refined. Some participants reported that they missed the warnings provided by the system once the technology had been removed. Participants wanted the system to be seamlessly integrated in their vehicle and have features that enabled personalisation. Participants identified that some of the warnings, most notably the advanced red light warning, were presented too late or at inaccurate times indicating that these issues must be remedied to ensure successful future implementation of C-ITS. Participants appreciated that data sharing would optimise the system but wanted controls to be put in place to guard against misuse; participants did not want their data to be used for sales or marketing purposes. Users’ experience and perceptions are key to ensuring wider-spread adoption of C-ITS. The findings thus have important implications for future C-ITS implementation to ensure that the benefits of C-ITS are optimised to facilitate wide-spread penetration of the technology.

Pilot study: Effect of roles and responsibility training on driver's use of adaptive cruise control between younger and older adults

With the development of driver support systems (SAE Levels 1 – 2), drivers must take on new monitoring and supervision tasks in additional to manual driving. Training is necessary to clarify drivers' new roles and promote safe usage and trust in these systems. Providing training for lower-levels of automation may also benefit drivers’ acceptance of future Fully Automated Vehicles (FAVs, SAE Level 5). However, younger and older drivers differ in training preferences (e.g., owner's manual vs on-road trial and error) and hold different attitudes towards automation. This study investigates the effects of additional training on drivers' roles and responsibilities when using Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC, SAE Level 1) for younger and older drivers. Thirty-nine adults (20 younger + 19 older) were trained on one of two ACC training protocols: basic (system functionality, operational procedures, and limitations) and comprehensive (basic training + ACC background and roles of responsibilities). Participants’ situational trust and ACC usage was evaluated before, during, and after experiencing an emergency event while using ACC in a driving simulator study. Results showed that the comprehensive training promoted drivers' situational trust in ACC, ACC usage, and the acceptance of FAvs Compared to younger drivers, older drivers used ACC less, reported less dynamic situational trust, higher levels of workload, and lower acceptance. Overall, comprehensive training resulted in older drivers behaving similarly to younger drivers. The comprehensive training also promoted the acceptance of FAVs for both younger and older drivers. In conclusion, training of drivers’ roles and responsibilities has an impact on drivers’ usage of ACC and may be particularly useful for older drivers.

U Bolt Failure Analysis

U bolt failures occur commonly in commercial vehicles. U bolt failures occur at various stages. 17 U bolts failures were analyzed to have a detailed understanding of the issues. Failures commonly occur during assembly, ORT (On Road Trial) validations and in field. In general, the failures can be classified as assembly failures and during service. Analysis revealed that assembly failures are torsional and ductile failures & field or ORT failures are fatigue failures.

Cyclist and pedestrian trust in automated vehicles: An on-road and simulator trial

Automated vehicles (AVs) need to be trusted by cyclists and pedestrians where they will share the road. To test trust, cyclists and pedestrians, and a comparison cohort of drivers, observed trials of both a road and simulator AV undertaking three common priority-based maneuvers: a right turn into a side road, overtaking a parked car, and passing over a pedestrian priority (zebra) crossing. The AV made the maneuvers either giving way, or not giving way, to a pedestrian or cyclist. One hundred and thirty-four participants aged 18 to 79 years were recruited based on being predominantly either a pedestrian, cyclist, or driver in their regular road use. For the on-road trials, the cyclist and pedestrian participants observed the AV maneuvers from the adjacent footway, and the driver participants observed from inside the AV. In the simulation environment, all participants were inside the automated vehicle. Trust scores were higher when participants observed a maneuver where the AV had to give way to a cyclist, and this can be linked with the re-assurance provided by the behavior of the AV in such an encounter. There was no significant difference in trust by road user type (cyclist, pedestrian or driver), age or driving experience, suggesting messaging to road users about the impacts of automated vehicles need not be differentiated by road user type. There was some evidence of differences in trust, especially for more complex maneuvers, between the on-road trial and the simulator, suggesting a need for caution in reliance on simulation-only experiments.

A novel method for reducing motion sickness susceptibility through training visuospatial ability – A two-part study

Everyone can be susceptible to motion sickness (except those with complete loss of labyrinth function) and around one in three are known to be servery susceptible. Motion sickness can be experienced in many domains, including car travel, on a boat, using virtual reality headsets and simulator use amongst others. It is expected that due to potential designs and use cases, self-driving cars will increase motion sickness onset likelihood and severity for many car travellers. Besides medication, there are limited methods through which one can actively reduce their motion sickness susceptibility. This research develops a novel visuospatial training tool and explores the effect of visuospatial training on motion sickness. With a combined sample of 42 participants split between driving simulator trials (n = 20), and on-road trials (n = 22) baseline visuospatial skills and motion sickness were first measured. After a 14-day training period where participates completed 15-min of pen and paper tasks per day, it was found that visuospatial skills improved by 40%. This increase in visuospatial ability was shown to be directly responsible for a reduction in motion sickness by 51% in the simulator (with a 60% reduction in participant dropouts) and a 58% reduction in the on-road trial. This research has successfully identified a new method to reduce motion sickness susceptibility and the impact of these findings have wide reaching implications for motion sickness research, especially in the field of self-driving vehicles.

The effect of ‘smart’ financial incentives on driving behaviour of novice drivers

Recent studies have demonstrated that financial incentives can improve driving behaviour but high-value incentives are unlikely to be cost-effective and attempts to amplify the impact of low-value incentives have so far proven disappointing. The present study provides experimental evidence to inform the design of ‘smart’ and potentially more cost-effective incentives for safe driving in novice drivers. Study participants (n = 78) were randomised to one of four financial incentives: high-value penalty; low-value penalty; high-value reward; low-value reward; allowing us to compare high-value versus low-value incentives, penalties versus rewards, and to test specific hypotheses regarding motivational crowding out and gain/loss asymmetry. Results suggest that (i) penalties may be more effective than rewards of equal value, (ii) even low-value incentives can deliver net reductions in risky driving behaviours and, (iii) increasing the dollar-value of incentives may not increase their effectiveness. These design principles are currently being used to optimise the design of financial incentives embedded within PAYD insurance, with their impact on the driving behaviour of novice drivers to be evaluated in on-road trials.

Development and On-Field Testing of Low-Cost Portable System for Monitoring PM2.5 Concentrations.

Recent developments in the field of low-cost sensors enable the design and implementation of compact, inexpensive and portable sensing units for air pollution monitoring with fine-detailed spatial and temporal resolution, in order to support applications of wider interest in the area of intelligent transportation systems (ITS). In this context, the present work advances the concept of developing a low-cost portable air pollution monitoring system (APMS) for measuring the concentrations of particulate matter (PM), in particular fine particles with a diameter of 2.5 μm or less (PM2.5). Specifically, this paper presents the on-field testing of the proposed low-cost APMS implementation using roadside measurements from a mobile laboratory equipped with a calibrated instrument as the basis of comparison and showcases its accuracy on characterizing the PM2.5 concentrations on 1 min resolution in an on-road trial. Moreover, it demonstrates the intended application of collecting fine-grained spatio-temporal PM2.5 profiles by mounting the developed APMS on an electric bike as a case study in the city of Mons, Belgium.

Crowdsourcing good landmarks for in-vehicle navigation systems

ABSTRACTAugmenting navigation systems with landmarks has been posited as a method of improving the effectiveness of the technology and enhancing drivers’ engagement with the environment. However, good navigational landmarks are both laborious to collect and difficult to define. This research aimed to devise a game concept which could be played by passengers in cars, and would collect useful landmark data as a by-product. The paper describes how a virtual graffiti tagging game concept was created and tested during on-road trials with 38 participants. The data collected in the road trials were then validated using a survey, in which 100 respondents assessed the quality of the landmarks collected and their potential for reuse in navigation applications. Players of the game displayed a consensus in choosing where to place their graffiti tags, with over 30% of players selecting the same object to tag in 10 of the 12 locations. Furthermore, significant correlation was found between how highly landmarks were rated in the survey and how frequently they were tagged during the game. The research provides evidence that using crowdsourcing games to collect landmarks does not require large numbers of people, or extensive coverage of an area, to produce suitable candidate landmarks for navigation.

Rainvision: The Impact of Road Markings on Driver Behaviour – Wet Night Visibility

Previous European research, i.e. COST 331 and the IMPROVER projects had demonstrated that road markings greatly increase driver comfort during dry night time conditions. Nevertheless, they highlighted the need for additional research under wet and wet and rainy conditions.Building upon this research, the RAINVISION project has investigated over the last three years how road markings can influence driver behaviour under all nightime weather conditions (dry, wet and wet and rainy) and how different age groups and gender groups adapt their behaviour based on the visibility and retro-reflectivity of road markings. The project has carried out three different trials; i.e. a simulation trial in France, a track test trial in Austria and on-road trial in the United Kingdom in cooperation with local authorities. For the simulation and track test trials, more than 100 test subjects were recruited respectively according to three age groups (20–40, 41–60 and 61+ years) and took several trials during different conditions. For the on-road trials, 10 high-risk sites were selected in cooperation with Durham county and Type II marking materials were applied in these sections. The project subsequently monitored speed over a whole climatic cycle and undertook an accidentology analysis. The results of the study in general indicate that the presence of enhanced road markings did significantly increase driver comfort, especially for older drivers. While there was an increase in driver speed, it was not seen as safety hazard as it was compensated by greater preview times. In fact in the UK trials, the results show that the presence of enhanced road markings actually led to a decrease in speeds.

From on-road trial evaluation of electric and conventional bicycles to comparison with other urban transport modes: Case study in the city of Lisbon, Portugal

Increasing energy costs, energy consumption and emissions profiles prompted the promotion of different transportation alternatives. This research work addresses the comparison of trip dynamics, energy consumption, CO2 and NOx Well-to-Wheel impacts of 5 transportation alternatives (conventional and electric bicycles, conventional and electric vehicles and an urban bus) in Lisbon, Portugal. On-road monitoring of a specific route in Lisbon revealed that bikers using electric bicycles increased their average speed between 8% and 26% compared to their use of the conventional bicycle, especially in the route sections with positive slopes (up to 49% increases). Electric bicycles result in a Tank-to-Wheel energy consumption of 0.028MJ/km, allowing an average autonomy of 46km between recharging. When comparing the 5 transportation alternatives, the electric bicycles presented a higher travel time of 13.5%, 1.9% and 7.8% over the bus, low powered electric vehicle, and standard electric vehicle/conventional technologies, respectively. Regarding the Well-to-Wheel energy consumption analysis, the results indicated that, when compared to the other transportation solutions, the electric bicycle only uses 11%, 3%, 1%, 2% and 4% of the energy required when using the low powered electric vehicle, standard electric vehicle, conventional gasoline and diesel technologies and bus, respectively. Furthermore, the analysis of Well-to-Wheel emissions reveals that the electric bicycle has 13% and 4% lower CO2 emissions and 12% and 4% lower NOx emissions when compared to the low powered and standard electric vehicles, respectively. This research work allows sustaining that bicycles can be considered interesting solutions for urban trips, with comparable trip times to other transportation modes, as well as zero local emissions and reduced Well-to-Wheel pollutant impacts, contributing significantly for the improvement of the overall urban air quality.

G1801-1-2 安全運転支援システムの大規模実証実験におけるスマートウェイの新たな取り組み(交通・物流部門一般)

国土交通省道路局および国土技術政策総合研究所では、走行支援道路システム(AHS)安全サービスを中心とする5.8GHzDSRC(狭域通信)とITS車載器を活用した次世代道路サービスの研究開発を進めてきた。2007年に首都高速道路で行われた公道実証実験および「スマートウェイ2007デモ」に続き、2008年度は東京での合同実証実験と地域数カ所での地域実証実験から成る「ITS-Safety2010大規模実証実験」が行われた。本稿では、各地域で新たに検討された各サービスの概要と、センサ情報共有による他省庁開発システムとの連携状況について報告する。

A new approach for allocating pavement damage between heavy goods vehicles for road-user charging

This paper argues that current Heavy Goods Vechicle (HGV) charging systems do not take into account key factors affecting the extent of pavement damage caused by individual HGVs. Thus, charges are poorly aligned to actual costs which is contrary to the EC's polluter pays principle. This paper describes the development and on-road trials of a new system, which uses on-board axle weighing and satellite positioning technology to estimate the amount of pavement damage caused on individual road links by an individual HGV. Although the on-road trials of the system were successful and demonstrated how current HGV charging systems can be improved in order to align pavement costs more closely to pavement charges, the paper also notes a number of implementation issues that need to be overcome before widespread implementation of the system is practicable.

A Map Matching Method for GPS Based Real-Time Vehicle Location

Accurate vehicle location is essential for various applications in the field of intelligent transportation systems (ITS). Existing vehicle location systems rely on multiple positioning sensors and powerful computing devices to execute complex map matching algorithms. There exists a strong need for exploring a solution for vehicle location that relies on a GPS receiver as the sole means of positioning and does not require complex computations. Towards this end, the error characteristics of the GPS signal were studied through the analysis of GPS data collected during test drives. Based on the inferences drawn and a simple fuzzy rule set, a novel yet simple map matching algorithm was developed. Due to the difficulties in testing the algorithm through on-road trials, a simulation environment that is capable of reproducing the field conditions in the laboratory was developed. Simulation results confirm that the proposed algorithm overcomes many of the inadequacies of the existing methods and is capable of achieving high accuracy with minimal computational requirements.

Network effects of intelligent speed adaptation systems

Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA) systems use in-vehicle electronic devices to enable the speed of vehicles to be regulated automatically. They are increasingly appreciated as a flexible method for speed management and control particularly in urban areas. On-road trials using a small numbers of ISA equipped vehicles have been carried out in Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK. This paper describes the developments made to enhance a traffic microsimulation model in order to represent ISA implemented across a network and the impact of this on the networks. The simulation modelling of the control system is carried out on a real-world urban network, and the impacts on traffic congestion, speed distribution and the environment assessed. The results show that ISA systems are more effective in less congested traffic conditions. Momentary high speeds in traffic are effectively suppressed, resulting in a reduction in speed variation which is likely to have a beneficial impact on safety. Whilst ISA reduces excessive traffic speeds in the network, it does not affect average journey times. In particular, the total vehicle-hours travelling at speeds below 10 km/hr have not changed, indicating that the speed control had not induced more slow-moving queues to the network. A statistically significant, eight percent, reduction in fuel consumption was found with full ISA penetration. These results are in accordance with those from field trials and they provide the basis for cost-benefit analyses on introducing ISA into the vehicle fleet. However, contrary to earlier findings from the Swedish ISA road trials, this study suggested that ISA is likely to have no significant effect on emission of gaseous pollutants CO, NOx and HC.

Using traffic light information as navigational cues: implications for navigation system design

Abstract There are compelling research findings that using landmarks such as traffic lights as navigation cues can enhance the acceptability, usability and safety of vehicle navigation systems. In this study, 30 participants undertook an on-road trial using simulated navigation instructions that omitted any reference to distance-to-turn, and instead incorporated information requiring drivers to count traffic lights and pedestrian lights. The study results confirmed that traffic lights can be used as navigation cues even when the density of traffic lights along a stretch of road is high and that the term “ set of traffic lights” results in slightly better performance than “traffic lights” alone. Factors other than density were found to have an effect on navigation performance. More errors were made if the target turn was at a pedestrian light and if the turn was visually complex or concealed. In the absence of a navigation task, most drivers did not differentiate between traffic and pedestrian lights when counting the occurrences and only experienced difficulty in counting when the number exceeded 4. Implications for the design of future navigation systems are highlighted.

Evaluation of Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Ceramic Honeycomb Substrates for Long Term Durability

Ceramic honeycomb substrates used in catalytic converter and diesel particulate filters for automobile pollution control applications require long term durability, and 80,000 km on-road run for gasoline-powered passenger cars in India. The durability of honeycomb substrates depends not only on basic physical, mechanical and thermal properties of honeycombs, but also on thermal stresses generated during use, and canning or mounting pressure. These key properties of honeycomb substrates were characterized. The properties that affect thermal and mechanical durability are found to be dependent on the design parameters such as cell density and honeycomb volume ratio of honeycomb substrates. The thermal stresses generated by the operating conditions were calculated and it was found that the honeycomb substrates could very well withstand these stresses. The optimum mounting pressure was calculated and applied for canning design. Thus, fabricated catalytic converter was subjected to on-road durability trials with four Indian vehicles on specified route scattered in different regions of India accumulating in excess of 80,000 km field run. Periodic inspection and back pressure testing carried out during intermediate emission tests showed that the developed ceramic honeycombs are durable beyond 80,000 km run.