NSF Award
2301446
This Engineering Research Initiation (ERI) project will support fundamental research to help understand electric vehicles’ potential benefit to traffic flow and operations, and to provide valuable insights on the important implications in transportation planning, traffic management, and transportation infrastructure design in an era of increasing electric vehicle adoption. Unlike vehicles with internal combustion engines, electric vehicles offer responsive and easily accessible performance because electric powertrain can deliver peak torque and swift acceleration almost immediately and decelerate immediately via regenerative braking unique to electric motors. These powertrain advantages can enable today’s advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and future vehicle automation technologies to operate more efficiently, and potentially reduce traffic congestion, improve safety, and reduce overall energy consumption and emissions of the entire vehicle fleet. Ultimately, these benefits to the transportation sector could improve productivity, enhance economic vitality and quality of life, mitigate environmental impact, and reduce energy dependence.<br/><br/>This award focuses on electric vehicles equipped with today’s commercially available Advanced Driver Assistance Systems such as Adaptive Cruise Control. The research will (i) develop standardized procedures to collect empirical data at the trajectory level, (ii) analyze the comprehensive car following behavior of electric vehicles with Adaptive Cruise Control by conducting field experiments using production vehicles from different manufacturers, (iii) develop new microscopic level models to capture the car following behavior that encompasses the full speed range, and (iv) implement the microscopic models in simulation to perform prospective analysis, develop macroscopic models such as the fundamental diagram, and explore possible implications for traffic control and management as well as other aspects such as traffic safety and emissions impacts. The research will prepare transportation practitioners and future graduates for emerging technologies in vehicle automation and electrification to ultimately accelerate the adoption of knowledge gained from this research into real world transportation engineering practice. This research will provide invaluable empirical datasets, models, and initial insights to the community of transportation researchers and practitioners.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
