Eco-speed Control Application for In-vehicle Devices Using V2i Communication at Rural Intersections

Stopping for red lights at intersections forms a major share of energy lost by a vehicle. Studies have indicated that an intelligent approach to vary speeds of vehicles to reduce stopping and idling at intersections can yield major savings in fuel and emissions. However, speed variation for eco-benefits depends on traffic congestion largely. This makes rural corridors a perfect candidate for its application-based study. Most studies on speed variation for fuel/emissions benefits apply a simplified principle to come up with an optimization function for speed-control algorithms. However, eco-speed control is far more than just smoothing out the velocity curve and involves use of microscopic models. In this paper, a MATLAB application with a graphical user interface is tested to prove applicability in in-vehicle devices. The application uses a state-of-the-art fuel consumption method to advise drivers about the optimal speed they need to follow. Fuel savings of up to 28 percent on signalized corridors has been identified for vehicles that use eco-speed control.