Dynamic ECO-driving for arterial corridors

There are a variety of strategies that are now being considered to reduce fuel consumption and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from the transportation sector. One strategy that is gaining interest worldwide is known as “eco-driving”. Eco-driving typically consists of changing a person´s driving behavior based on general (static) advice to the driver, such as accelerating slowly, driving smoothly, reducing high speeds, etc. Taking this one-step further, it is possible to provide realtime advice to drivers based on changing traffic and infrastructure conditions for even greater fuel and emission savings. This concept of dynamic eco-driving takes advantage of real-time traffic sensing and infrastructure information, which can then be communicated to a vehicle with a goal of reducing fuel consumption and emissions. In this paper, we consider dynamic eco-driving in an arterial corridor with traffic signals, where signal phase and timing information of a traffic light is provided to the vehicle. The vehicle can then adjust its velocity while traveling through a signalized corridor with the goal of minimizing fuel consumption and emissions. A dynamic eco-driving velocity planning algorithm has been developed and is described herein. This algorithm has then been tested in simulation, showing initial fuel economy and CO₂ improvements of around 12%.