A unique collaboration

The Sentience research vehicle was unveiled to an invited media audience at TRL (Transport Research Laboratory), who were provided the opportunity of driving the vehicle on the TRL test track in conditions representative of public roads.

The event marked the conclusion of the 15 month Sentience research collaboration between Ricardo, Jaguar-Land Rover, TRL, Ordnance Survey and Orange Business Services, with part-funding provided by innovITS, the UK centre of excellence for intelligent transport systems and sustainable mobility.

The project has been based on extending the electronic horizon of the vehicle using internet-enabled mobile communications, GPS, advanced mapping and other sophisticated real-time navigational technologies, aimed at reducing the exhaust emissions and CO2 output of future vehicles in a cost-effective manner.

“Sentience has been a unique collaboration between three industries who would not normally work together”, explains Sentience project director, Tom Robinson, of Ricardo. “The results speak for themselves in demonstrating the potential synergy to be realised by connecting the existing on-board systems of vehicles with mobile communications and advanced mapping technologies.” Three particular areas of focus for Sentience have been on Enhanced Acceleration/Deceleration (EAD) in which the vehicle speed is controlled to meet actual and virtual speed limits; Optimized Engine Load (OEL) in which the hybrid powertrain systems are managed using advanced route knowledge in such a way as to make optimal use of recharging opportunities; and Enhanced Air-Conditioning (EAC) control in which temperature set-points are adjusted prior to and following temporary stops.

Much of the work of the project team has concentrated on the first of these strategies as Robinson explains: “We wanted to demonstrate the potential benefits of implementing EAD as we felt this held the prospect of the most substantial fuel savings and hence CO2 reductions. With fuel savings demonstrated on the test track of up to 24 per cent and at least 5 per cent in evening based onroad tests, this was a sensible primary focus for our work, but there remains further clear potential in the implementation of OEL and EAC strategies, as well as in the integration with navigation technologies such as intelligent route guidance.”