ESB ecars Project
Electric vehicles - GPS tracking and CANbus telemetry.
Transpoco are delighted to be involved with Esb ecars project. It is a project designed to support the way for the role out of electric cars in Ireland. We have enjoyed the project and the challenges put forward by creating the solutions. Our specific role in the project is to provide GPS tracking and telemetry data for the research team in Trinity college who are examining the social and driver behaviour factors effecting people when using electric cars.
Samples of the types of information they are trying to find are things like:
- - How often do people charge the cars
- - Do they charge them depending on battery level or by habit?
- - Are their driving habits effected (this is done by comparing driving of their normal combustion engine cars)
- - Are they driving the cars efficiently? For instance, using regenerative braking when possible?
The study is quite detailed and goes right down to the level of the test drivers stating the purpose if each and every journey they take, for instance commuting to work, shopping, etc. Once all the data is combined, it will be published and should give valuable feedback to both infrastructure providers like the ESB and also to vehicle manufacturer and other service providers (like Transpoco) about the requirements for electric vehicles. The data that we need to provide for the study is as follows:
All the standard GPS vehicle tracking stuff:
- - Location (updated every 5 seconds)
- - Speed
- - Heading
- - Distance Travelled
- - Acceleration
- - De Acceleration
- - Journey Reports and route replays
- - Stop reports
- - Etc...
Electric vehicle specific information:
- - Current battery level
- - Charging history
- - Power used whilst driving (imagine the rev counter in a normal vehicle, same idea, there is a gauge on the dash that shows the electrical power being used as the vehicle is driven, we record a complete history of this)
- - Use of re-generative braking
- - Use of accessories that consume battery power (air con, head lights etc.)
I have posted a short video of the system, particular focus given to the electric vehicle stuff. Check it out below.
