Effective Slope for Fuel Consumption Calculation

• US 20120109512A1
• Filed: 11/02/2010
• Published: 05/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HERE Global B.V. (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Navteq North America LLC (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Calkins, Andrew
• Granted Patent: US 8,880,333 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/415
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3469 Fuel consumption; Energy use; Emission aspects

Abstract

A method and system for calculating a green route using an effective slope is disclosed. A route calculation application calculates one or more routes from an origin to a destination. For each of the routes, the route calculation application calculates an associated fuel consumption value. The fuel consumption value is based on effective slope for segments in the route. The effective slope is a value that is based on the impact slope has on the fuel consumption of a vehicle traveling on the segment.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for calculating a green route, comprising:

obtaining an origin and a destination associated with a road network;

calculating at least one route from the origin to the destination using geographic data representing roads in the road network, wherein the geographic data includes effective slope data that represents a fuel consumption impact of a slope of a road;

calculating fuel consumption of the calculated routes using the effective slope data to identify a route that minimizes fuel consumption when traveling from the origin to the destination; and

providing route guidance for traveling on the route that minimizes fuel consumption.

2. The method of claim 1, the effective slope data is obtained from a table that associates effective slope values with fuel consumption values.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the fuel consumption values are obtained by clustering.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the geographic data includes actual slope data for road segments representing a road in the road network, and further comprising calculating a general fuel consumption value for a segment associated with an actual slope value.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the general fuel consumption value is calculated using the formula:

GFC=Σ

(distanceⁿ*LPK(slopeⁿ))/Σ

(distanceⁿ)

where distance is a length of the segment, slope is the actual slope value of the segment, and LPK is a lookup table value.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the lookup table values are determined using clustering.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the clustering is performed by vehicle type.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the geographic data includes road type and calculating fuel consumption includes using the road type data.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the geographic data includes speed data and calculating fuel consumption includes using the speed data.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining traffic data, wherein calculating fuel consumption includes using the traffic data.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining weather data, where calculating fuel consumption includes using the weather data.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining profile data, wherein calculating fuel consumption includes using the profile data.

13. A navigation system that provides green routing;

comprising;

a user interface that allows a user to request route information from a first location to a second location;

a map database that includes geographic data for a geographic area that includes the first and second locations, wherein the geographic database includes effective slope data that represents a fuel consumption impact of actual slope; and

a processor that executes a route calculation application that calculates a route that minimizes fuel consumption when traveling from the first location to the second location, wherein the route is calculated using the effective slope data.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the effective slope data is obtained from a table that associates effective slope values with fuel consumption values.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the table values are obtained by clustering by vehicle type.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the processor uses a route guidance application to provide route guidance for traveling on the route.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the processor uses a map display application to display a map of the route.

18. A map database having data to facilitate the calculation of a green route;

comprising;

speed category data that represents speed associated with a road segment;

road type data that represents functional class associated with the road segment;

segment characteristic data that represents physical characteristics associated with the road segment; and

effective slope data that represents a slope'"'"'s contribution to fuel consumption when traveling on the road segment;

wherein a route guidance application uses the speed category data, the road type data, the segment characteristic data, and the effective slope data to calculate a route that minimizes fuel consumption.

19. The map database of claim 18, wherein the segment characteristic data represents curvature of the road segment.

20. The map database of claim 18, wherein the segment characteristic data represents road surface type.