Dynamic En-Route Eco-Navigation: Strategy Design, Implementation and Evaluation

Transportation activities account for a significant fraction of the world's total energy consumption and emissions. In recent years, reducing a vehicle's energy consumption and emissions has become a research topic with ever-increasing interest, especially in the area of intelligent transportation systems (ITS). Among a variety of ITS applications, environmentally-friendly navigation (or eco-routing), which aims at finding a minimal energy or minimal emissions route, has the potential to significantly reduce energy consumption and total emissions. Previous research on environmentally-friendly navigation mainly focuses on pre-trip eco-routing. However, this approach may not be optimal due to the highly dynamic evolution of traffic conditions. In contrast, carrying out dynamic en-route eco-navigation can potentially further improve environmental sustainability. This paper presents a methodology for dynamic en-route eco-navigation research, in which details for strategy design, implementation and evaluation are elaborated. Utilizing this methodology, a case study has been carried out using a well-evaluated mesoscopic energy consumption model applied to a Beijing's expressways network. Results demonstrate that the proposed dynamic en-route eco-navigation in this study is beneficial in improving environmental sustainability while not compromising mobility.