Disruptive Autonomous Truck Tech to Save Fuel
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The heavy truck field industry in both the commercial and military sectors is a large consumer of fuel. A new paradigm aims at changing this equation. Engineers from Auburn University, Alabama, US have developed a system to platoon vehicles at a very close space for fuel benefits.
They’ve tested this technology on both commercial and army vehicles helping truckers and the military save money and be safer on the road. It’s called truck platooning – the linking of two or more trucks in convoy, using connectivity technology and automated driving support systems. These vehicles automatically maintain a set, close distance between each other when they are connected for certain parts of a journey, for instance on motorways.
“Humans don’t have the reaction time to allow short distance platooning. When you can have sensors and computers controlling that to allow trucks to follow close and draft, so you get fuel savings and those fuel savings are a benefit to the economy and the environment,” said Dr. David Bevly, Director of Auburn University’s GPS & Vehicle Lab, as cited by fleetowner.com.
The team has also tested a feature with civilian and military vehicles that would allow the trucks to adjust speed and braking. “It was really interesting to show interoperability between military truck and commercial trucks using common communication platforms between the trucks,” said Dr. Bevly.
According to fleetowner.com, the university joined the US Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center, or TARDEC in 2017, to conduct the live demonstration of the autonomous vehicle technology traveling across the border between the US and Canada.
Auburn’s two Peterbilt 579 trucks led the mixed convoy of commercial and military trucks using platooning software developed and implemented throughout the convoy. The researchers’ work on GPS and radar sensor fusion also allowed the convoy to maintain a set distance between each truck.
The Army’s vehicles in the convoy, two M915 line-haul tractors carrying flatbed trailers loaded with cargo containers, were each equipped with TARDEC’s Autonomous Mobility Appliqué System technology which enables a full range of capabilities, from driver-warning features to fully-autonomous operation, which can move the vehicle along a path using pre-programmed waypoints.
