Energy intensity of human transportation

Humans are a mobile species, and transportation technology has been one of the primary enablers of our current shared, globally-connected society. Transportation is also one of the largest categories of human energy use, and this energy use correlates with a diverse range of environmental impacts. Different modes of transportation have different energy intensities, with increasing speed being associated with greater energy intensity. This study reviews the fundamental relationships and energy requirements of human-powered and wheeled ground transportation. Relevant data for modeling energy efficiency of walked, running and wheeled transport in the context of engineering design are compiled and presented. It is shown that increasing energy intensity facilitates greater speed and movement of more people. In general, people are able to travel anywhere at any speed, if they are willing and able to pay the energy price. At the same time, a willingness to accept reduced speeds would greatly reduce the energy intensity and environmental impact of transportation. Finally, several design implications for low energy ground transportation are examined in the context of energy efficiency

Urban and extra-urban hybrid vehicles: a technological review

Pollution derived from transportation systems is a worldwide, timelier issue than ever. The abatement actions of harmful substances in the air are on the agenda and they are necessary today to safeguard our welfare and that of the planet. Environmental pollution in large cities is approximately 20% due to the transportation system. In addition, private traffic contributes greatly to city pollution. Further, “vehicle operating life” is most often exceeded and vehicle emissions do not comply with European antipollution standards. It becomes mandatory to find a solution that respects the environment and, realize an appropriate transportation service to the customers. New technologies related to hybrid –electric engines are making great strides in reducing emissions, and the funds allocated by public authorities should be addressed. In addition, the use (implementation) of new technologies is also convenient from an economic point of view. In fact, by implementing the use of hybrid vehicles, fuel consumption can be reduced. The different hybrid configurations presented refer to such a series architecture, developed by the researchers and Research and Development groups. Regarding energy flows, different strategy logic or vehicle management units have been illustrated. Various configurations and vehicles were studied by simulating different driving cycles, both European approval and homologation and customer ones (typically municipal and university). The simulations have provided guidance on the optimal proposed configuration and information on the component to be used

Improving the safety and efficiency of rail yard operations using robotics

textSignificant efforts have been expended by the railroad industry to make operations safer and more efficient through the intelligent use of sensor data. This work proposes to take the technology one step further to use this data for the control of physical systems designed to automate hazardous railroad operations, particularly those that require humans to interact with moving trains. To accomplish this, application specific requirements must be established to design self-contained machine vision and robotic solutions to eliminate the risks associated with existing manual operations. Present-day rail yard operations have been identified as good candidates to begin development. Manual uncoupling, in particular, of rolling stock in classification yards has been investigated. To automate this process, an intelligent robotic system must be able to detect, track, approach, contact, and manipulate constrained objects on equipment in motion. This work presents multiple prototypes capable of autonomously uncoupling full-scale freight cars using feedback from its surrounding environment. Geometric image processing algorithms and machine learning techniques were implemented to accurately identify cylindrical objects in point clouds generated in real-vi time. Unique methods fusing velocity and vision data were developed to synchronize a pair of moving rigid bodies in real-time. Multiple custom end-effectors with in-built compliance and fault tolerance were designed, fabricated, and tested for grasping and manipulating cylindrical objects. Finally, an event-driven robotic control application was developed to safely and reliably uncouple freight cars using data from 3D cameras, velocity sensors, force/torque transducers, and intelligent end-effector tooling. Experimental results in a lab setting confirm that modern robotic and sensing hardware can be used to reliably separate pairs of rolling stock up to two miles per hour. Additionally, subcomponents of the autonomous pin-pulling system (APPS) were designed to be modular to the point where they could be used to automate other hazardous, labor-intensive tasks found in U.S. classification yards. Overall, this work supports the deployment of autonomous robotic systems in semi-unstructured yard environments to increase the safety and efficiency of rail operations.Mechanical Engineerin

Tactical block planning for intermodal rail transportation

Le mémoire présente le problème de la planification tactique des “blocks” pour le transport ferroviaire intermodal, qui a été peu étudié jusqu’à présent. Nous proposons un nouveau modèle de design de réseau en tenant compte de la spécificité du transport intermodal. La recherche se concentre sur le contexte nord-américain et fait suite à une étroite collaboration avec l’une des principales compagnies ferroviaires nord-américaines. Le “blocking” constitue une importante opération de transport ferroviaire de marchandises, par laquelle des wagons d’origines et de destinations potentiellement différentes sont regroupés pour être d´eplacés et manipulés comme une seule unité, ce qui permet des économies d’échelle. La littérature se limite aux travaux traitant le problème classique du blocage des trains, où la demande est exprimée en termes de wagons. A notre connaissance, aucun travail préalable n’a été consacrè à un contexte de transport intermodal, où la demande est exprimée en termes de conteneurs à dèplacer d’un terminal d’origine donné vers un terminal de destination donné, introduisant ainsi un processus de consolidation supplémentaire. Nous proposons un modèle de “blocking” qui prend en compte plusieurs types de conteneurs et wagons, intégrant l’affectation conteneur-wagon. Nous présentons un nouveau modèle de design de réseau à trois couches en temps continu formulé sous la forme d’un programme linéaire mixte en nombres entiers (MILP), dans le but de minimiser le coût total de transport composé par la sélection de blocs, les coûts d’exploitation et la gestion du coût de la demande. Le modèle peut être résolu en utilisant un solveur commercial pour des tailles réalistes. Nous illustrons les performances et l’intérêt de la méthode proposée à travers une étude de cas approfondie d’un important chemin de fer nord-américain.The thesis presents the tactical block-planning problem for intermodal railroads, which has been little studied so far. We propose a new block service network design model considering the specificity of intermodal rail. The research focuses on the North American context and follows a close collaboration with one of the major North American railroad companies. Blocking constitutes an important rail freight transport operation, by which cars with potentially different origins and destinations are grouped to be moved and handled as a single unit, yielding economies of scale. The literature is limited to works addressing the classical train blocking problem, where demand is given in terms of cars to be blocked among specific OD pairs. To the best of our knowledge, no prior work has been dedicated to an intermodal transportation context, where demand is expressed in terms of containers to be moved from a given origin terminal to a given destination terminal, hence introducing an additional consolidation process. We propose a blocking model that considers several types of containers and railcars, integrating the container-to-car assignment. We present a new continuous-time, three-layer service network design model formulated as a Mixed Integer Linear Program (MILP), with the objective of minimizing the total transportation cost composed by block selection, operation costs, and handling demand cost. The model can be solved using commercial solver for realistic sizes. We illustrate the performance and interest of the proposed method through an extensive case study of a major North American railroad

Concepts Which May be Used in a Study of Transportation in Elementary School Social Studies

The purpose of this study was to identify concepts applicable to a unit on transportation in an elementary school social studies program

Testing the three-phase technology for harvesting biomass from wetlands

Many protected wetlands in Poland require special care to restore and protect them as breeding areas for endangered bird species. As machinery for this purpose, adapted tracked snow groomers, tracked trailers and wheeled tractors are outdated and not eco-friendly. The Industrial Institute of Agricultural Engineering (PIMR) has designed and developed new-generation machinery that will be more useful in formal paludiculture. The PIMR three-phase technology (T-PT) improves the efficiency of vehicle movement making it less damaging to protected wetlands, and allows non-stop collection of a whole swath. The bales produced are rolled over the ground as a biomass train to storage locations at the field margin. Key features of T-PT that contribute to protection of the wetlands and the wider environment are: a) the delta tracks of the vehicles, which make grooved paths (depth ~ 30 mm) but do not damage the surface structure; b) non-stop swath collection, which improves engine efficiency and reduces fuel consumption; and c) the use of ‘EcoSafe FR’ biodegradable fluid in the power hydraulics, which means that there is no pollution of water in the case of spillage

Электронный учебно-методический комплекс по учебной дисциплине «Иностранный язык (английский)» для студентов I ступени получения высшего образования специальности 1-70 03 01 «Автомобильные дороги»

Диск содержит данные об учебно-методическом комплексе по дисциплине «Иностранный язык (английский)», который предназначен для студентов очной формы получения высшего образования, а также преподавателей БНТУ кафедры английского языка №2. Может использоваться как для проведения аудиторных практических занятий, так и для самостоятельной работы студентов

Door to door: Future of the vehicle future of the city

International audienceLes véhicules écologiques et la communication numérique embarquée, à l’ère des flux intelligents et de l’Internet des objets, transforment l’architecture et la ville contemporaines. Door to door, Futur du véhicule, futur urbain, repense les situations urbaines, théorise et imagine les modèles futurs de développement, les nouveaux programmes architecturaux qui en découlent. Il propose et présente les « espaces de l’accès », l’extension-multiplication de l’accessibilité « porte-à-porte » sur six métropoles européennes, et la fonction réparatrice de ces nouveaux outils de « l’auto-mobilité » communicante, résolvant par leur usage les dysfonctionnements urbains.Le parking devient un programme d’avenir pour l’architecture, tandis que le Véhicule Ecologique Communicant (VEC), un outil bientôt automate, ni bruyant, ni sale, côtoie humains, nature et animaux dans les bâtiments – le partage des présences et des activités dans un « grand espace commun ». Le VEC est l’exemple le plus puissant de l’interaction entre la pratique des territoires urbanisés et les TIC. Il est le marqueur le plus incisif du retour du modèle des flux pour penser l’urbain, sous une forme cohérente avec la demande ou les injonctions de la société des échanges et du partage qui s’est mise en marche : la mobilité-accessibilité est redevenue le programme premier, la structure du futur. Que devient l’urbain lorsque l’accès en est le trait le plus dominant ? Les « pôles d’accessibilité et d’échange » sont des dispositifs de transformation de la vie urbaine, qu’ils reconfigurent pour plus de confort et d’efficacité.L’arrivée des nouveaux véhicules accélère ainsi l’interférence entre l’urbanisme des usages et des services et l’urbanisme spatial. A ce niveau, les véhicules sont équivalents à des bâtiments