(Press-News.org) Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed new software that estimates how much farther electric vehicles can drive before needing to recharge. The new technique requires drivers to plug in their destination and automatically pulls in data on a host of variables to predict energy use for the vehicle.
"Electric cars already have range-estimation software, but we believe our approach is more accurate," says Dr. Habiballah Rahimi-Eichi, a postdoctoral researcher at NC State and lead author of a paper on the work.
"Existing technologies estimate remaining range based on average energy consumption of the past 5 miles, 15 miles, etc.," Rahimi-Eichi says. "By plugging in the destination, our software looks at traffic data, whether you'll be on the highway or in the city, weather, road grade, and other variables. This predictive, big-data approach is a significant step forward, reducing the range estimation error to a couple of miles. In some case studies, we were able to get 95 percent range estimation accuracy."
The software takes all of the data related to the route between starting point and destination and uses big data techniques to determine which pieces of information are important and extract key features that can be plugged into an algorithm to estimate how far the vehicle can go before recharging.
But two other variables are also plugged into the algorithm: the performance characteristics of the vehicle and its battery; and the amount of charge remaining in the battery. The state of charge is estimated using a patented technique developed by Rahimi-Eichi and Dr. Mo-Yuen Chow in 2012. Chow is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State and a co-author of the paper.
"People have a lot of 'range anxiety' in regard to electric vehicles – they're afraid they'll get stuck on the side of the road," Chow says. "Hopefully, our new range estimation software will make people more confident about using electric vehicles."
The paper, "Big-Data Framework for Electric Vehicle Range Estimation," will be presented at the 40th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, being held Oct. 29 to Nov. 1 in Dallas, Texas.
INFORMATION:
Ordinary over the counter painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs purchased from pharmacies may also be effective in the treatment of people suffering of depression.
This is shown by the largest ever meta-analysis that has just been published by a research group from Aarhus University in the American scientific journal JAMA Psychiatry. The meta-analysis is based on 14 international studies with a total 6,262 patients who either suffered from depression or had individual symptoms of depression.
Up to 15 per cent of the Danish population can expect to suffer from depression ...
PHILADELPHIA – (Oct. 21, 2014) – A team of scientists, led by researchers at The Wistar Institute, has identified a possible explanation for why middle-aged adults were hit especially hard by the H1N1 influenza virus during the 2013-2014 influenza season. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, offer evidence that a new mutation in H1N1 viruses potentially led to more disease in these individuals. Their study suggests that the surveillance community may need to change how they choose viral strains that go into seasonal ...
HUNTSVILLE, TX (10/21/14) -- One out of every five female students experience stalking victimization during their college career, but many of those cases are not reported to police, according to a study by the Crime Victims' Institute (CVI) at Sam Houston State University.
The rate of stalking on college campuses is higher than those experienced by the general public, according to research. Many of the victims fail to report the incidents because they feel the situation was too minor, feared revenge, saw it as a private or personal matter, or thought police would not ...
Russian scientists have developed a theoretical model of quantum memory for light, adapting the concept of a hologram to a quantum system. These findings from Anton Vetlugin and Ivan Sokolov from St. Petersburg State University in Russia are published in a study in EPJD. The authors demonstrate for the first time that it is theoretically possible to retrieve, on demand, a given portion of the stored quantised light signal of a holographic image – set in a given direction in a given position in time sequence. This is done by shaping the control field both in space ...
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Researchers have created a cellular probe that combines a tarantula toxin with a fluorescent compound to help scientists observe electrical activity in neurons and other cells. The probe binds to a voltage-activated potassium ion channel subtype, lighting up when the channel is turned off and dimming when it is activated.
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Some people suffer incipient dementia as they get older. To make up for this loss, the brain's cognitive reserve is put to the test. Researchers from the University of Santiago de Compostela have studied what factors can help to improve this ability and they conclude that having a higher level of vocabulary is one such factor.
'Cognitive reserve' is the name given to the brain's capacity to compensate for the loss of its functions. This reserve cannot be measured directly; rather, it is calculated through indicators believed to increase this capacity.
A research project ...
Scientists from Queen's University Belfast have been involved in a groundbreaking discovery in the area of experimental physics that has implications for understanding how radiotherapy kills cancer cells, among other things.
Dr Jason Greenwood from Queen's Centre for Plasma Physics collaborated with academics from Italy and Spain on the work on electrons, which has been published in the international journal Science.
Using some of the shortest laser pulses in the world, the researchers used strobe lighting to track the ultra-fast movement of the electrons within a nanometer-sized ...
A new study led by researchers at King's College London in collaboration with the University of Manchester and the University of Dundee has found a strong link between exposure to peanut protein in household dust during infancy and the development of peanut allergy in children genetically predisposed to a skin barrier defect.
Around 2% of school children in the UK and the US are allergic to peanuts. Severe eczema in early infancy has been linked to food allergies, particularly peanut allergy. A major break-through in the understanding of eczema developed with the discovery ...
Fewer cords, smaller antennas and quicker video transmission. This may be the result of a new type of microwave circuit that was designed at Chalmers University of Technology. The research team behind the circuits currently holds an attention-grabbing record. Tomorrow the results will be presented at a conference in San Diego.
Every time we watch a film clip on our phone or tablet, an entire chain of advanced technology is involved. In order for the film to start playing in an even sequence when we press the play button, the data must reach us quickly via a long series ...
An experimental drug currently being trialled for influenza and Ebola viruses could have a new target: norovirus, often known as the winter vomiting virus. A team of researchers at the University of Cambridge has shown that the drug, favipiravir, is effective at reducing – and in some cases eliminating – norovirus infection in mice.
Norovirus is the most common cause of gastroenteritis in the UK. For most people, infection causes an unpleasant but relatively short-lived case of vomiting and diarrhoea, but chronic infection can cause major health problems for ...
