Cummins is part of the research project that will use sensors and online cloud technology.
The partnership, which also includes Peleton Technology, Peterbilt Motors Company, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), is part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Next-Generation Energy Technologies for Connected and Autonomous On-Road Vehicles program, also known as NEXTCAR. Trucks will be connected to the cloud, and they will be connected to each other. The vehicles will use forward-looking information revealing changes in road, traffic and driving conditions several miles ahead. Trucks will be linked to a cloud-based network operations centre, providing access to information from crowd-sourced traffic data, road-grade maps and weather services. The vehicles will be driven as if every driver had forward-looking information about what’s happening a few miles down the road, what the grades are going to be, where the hills are going to be and what the vehicle in front of them is doing. This will allow vehicles to react much quicker than a human driver could.
New algorithms will allow for more effective “platooning” of trucks, in which a pair of trucks position themselves to reduce aerodynamic drag, not unlike the peloton in bicycle racing. The trucks will come together to reduce the drag on each other. Through automation, the trucks can be closer together than human drivers could safely drive them, and this can be done because the connectivity and algorithms are inherently faster, and more accurate, than humans.
Peloton Technology links pairs of trucks today through a wireless vehicle-to-vehicle communications link between the throttle and braking systems. This allows the trucks to coordinate speeds to maintain a safe, aerodynamic following distance. Optimizing the trucks’ powertrains using information about the road ahead could allow for significant improvements. Peloton Technology’s two-truck platooning system results in average fuel savings of 7 percent at a following distance of 36 feet, based on 4.5 percent fuel savings for the lead truck and 10 percent for the following truck. Enhanced algorithms could boost the average fuel savings to as much as 13 percent.
The intention is to tap into fuel savings that can only be attained by managing the powertrain precisely for the road ahead, and for the specific configuration of the trucks in a platoon. Cloud connectivity provides information about the road ahead, and the trucks exchange data about their estimated mass and powertrain capabilities. This helps maintain smooth, efficient platooning through grades and rolling hills. Source