Road Grade Measurement Using In-Vehicle, Stand-Alone GPS with Barometric Altimeter
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 139, Issue 6
Abstract
Real-world vehicle fuel use and emission rates are sensitive to road grade. There is a need for a practical method for measuring road grade in combination with on-board measurement of vehicle activity, energy use, and emissions using portable emissions measurement systems (PEMS). This paper focuses on quantification of the accuracy and precision of a low-cost method using a stand-alone global positioning system (GPS) receiver with an in-built barometric altimeter. Approximately 100 one-way runs were made on each of several study routes. The sensitivity of average grade estimates to the averaging distance over which grade is estimated is quantified. The repeatability of vehicle location and distance traveled is quantified. The run-to-run variability and confidence intervals for average estimates of grade are quantified. The accuracy of the grade estimates is evaluated in comparison to LIDAR-based estimates. The low-cost method is shown to be accurate, but imprecision in the measurements leads to a need for typically at least 10 or more repeated runs, depending on the desired precision of the average estimate of grade.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Numbers CBET-0756263 and CBET-0853766. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. The authors gratefully acknowledge Dr. Kaishan Zhang and Dr. Hyung Wook Choi for their prior work conducted at NC State University in quantifying road grade using LIDAR and in preliminary assessment of road grade estimated from GPS data.
References
Battelle. (2003). “Environmental Technology Verification Rep.: Clean Air Technologies International, Inc.” REMOTE On-Board Emissions Monitor, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Ann Arbor, MI.
Boriboonsomsin, K., and Barth, M. (2009). “Impacts of road grade on fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions evidenced by use of advanced navigation systems.”, Transporation Research Board, Washington, DC, 21–30.
Brimicombe, A. (2009). GIS, environmental modeling and engineering, Second Ed., CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.
Cicero-Fernandez, P., and Long, J. R. (1997). “Effects of grades and other loads on on-road emissions of hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide.” J. Air Waste Manage. Assoc., 47(8), 898–904.
Farrel, J. A. (2008). Aided navigation GPS with high rate sensors, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Frey, H. C., Unal, A., Chen, J., Li, S., and Xuan, C. (2002). “Methodology for developing modal emission rates for EPA’s multi-scale motor vehicle & equipment emission system.”, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Ann Arbor, MI.
Garmin. (2009). “GPSMAP 76CS Mapping GPS Owners Manual.” Garmin International, Inc., Olathe, KS, 〈http://www8:garmin:com/manuals/GPSMAP76CSx_OwnersManual:pdf〉 (May 04, 2012).
Huan, L., Barth, M., Scora, G., Davis, N., and Lents, J. (2009). “Using portable emission measurement systems for transportation emissions studies: Comparison with laboratory methods.”, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC, 5460.
Jiménez-Palacios, J. L. (1999). “Understanding and quantifying motor vehicle emissions with vehicle specific power and TILDAS remote sensing.” Ph.D. dissertation, MIT, Cambridge, MA.
Kaplan, E. D., and Hegarty, C. J. (2005). Understanding GPS principles and applications, Second Ed., Artech House, Norwood, MA.
Kelly, N., and Groblicki, P. J. (1993). “Real-world emissions from a modern production vehicle driven in Los Angeles.” J. Air Waste Manage. Assoc., 43(10), 1351–1357.
Liu, H., He, K., Lents, J. M., Wang, Q., and Tolvett, S. (2009). “Characteristics of diesel truck emission in China based on portable emissions measurement systems.” J. Environ. Sci. Technol., 43(24), 9507–9511.
Mangan, S., Wang, J., and Wu, Q. H. (2002). “Measurement of the road gradient using an inclinometer mounted on a moving vehicle.” IEEE Int. Symp. on Computer Aided Control System Design Proc., IEEE, NJ.
Mikhail, E. M., Bethel, J. S., and McGlone, J. C. (2001). Introduction to modern photogrammetry, Wiley, New York.
Ogaja, C. A. (2011). Applied GPS for engineers and project managers, First Ed., ASCE, Reston, VA.
Panzer, M. (2003). “Verfahren und verrichtung zur ermittlung der fahrzeugmasse.” European Patent Application; EP1387153A1 (in German).
Pierson, W. R., et al. (1996). “Real-world automotive emissions: Summary of studies in the Fort McHenry and Tuscarora Mountain Tunnels.” Atmos. Environ., 30(12), 2233–2256.
Rogers, K. J., and Trayford, R. S. (1984). “Grade measurement with an instrumented car.” Transp. Res., 18B(3), 247–254.
Sahlholm, P., Jansson, H., and Johansson, K. H. (2007). “Road grade estimation results using sensor and data fusion.” 14th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems, October 9-13, Beijing, China.
Souleyrette, R., Hallmark, S., Pattnaik, S., O’Brien, M., and Veneziano, D. (2003). “Grade and cross slope estimation from LIDAR-based surface models.”, Midwest Transportation Consortium, Ames, IA.
Zhang, K., and Frey, H. C. (2006). “Road grade estimation for on-road vehicle emissions modeling using light detection and ranging data.” J. Air Waste Manage. Assoc., 56(6), 777–788.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 139 • Issue 6 • June 2013
Pages: 605 - 611
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 12, 2011
Accepted: Feb 4, 2013
Published online: Feb 6, 2013
Published in print: Jun 1, 2013
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.