Investigation into the Development of a Heavy-Duty Vehicle Probe Data Platform
Intelligent Vehicle Systems

Heavy-duty prototype system

 

Heavy-duty probe user interface

 

Heavy-duty vehicle probe data platform architecture

The heavy-duty vehicle probe data platform is a system for truck data collection and management operations. The platform system provides pertinent near real-time truck system data for government entities and commercial carriers. The results of the system are a prototype that accepts relevant probe data conforming to the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) J1939 standard from the Controller Area Network (CAN) and delivering the data to a receiving application over a wireless communication system.

Background of the Heavy-Duty Vehicle Probe Data Platform

A major thrust in the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) industry is in optimizing the safety, security, and mobility of commercial vehicles. Only limited truck-specific information is currently transmitted from commercial vehicles. The data available from heavy-duty vehicles are much richer in content and of more benefit to multiple agencies. The concept of the project was to develop an integrated heavy-duty vehicle probe data platform for delivering data from a heavy-duty vehicle wirelessly to an infrastructure that can then receive, interpret, and utilize this probe data. The heavy-duty platform is composed of a distributed system consisting of:

Heavy-duty probe user interface

• A small integrated prototype that could be used in a heavy-duty vehicle as a platform on which to undertake additional application development
• A subsystem that accepts information from the unit, interprets it, and delivers it to interested subscribers of the information
• A user interface for operators in government or commercial centers to manage the vehicle through relevant SAE J1939 information

The Vehicle Probe Data

A team at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) selected 230 datasets contained in 40 messages from the SAE J1939 standard for the ITS internal research experiments. These data captured information, such as:

• Wheel speed
• Fuel efficiency
• Truck weight by axle
• Cruise control setting
• Average speed per trip
• Tire conditions
• Engine temperature
• Heavy-duty vehicle probe data platform architecture

The Full Heavy-Duty Vehicle Probe System

The heavy-duty vehicle probe data platform prototype device selected was the Palm® TREO™ 700WX. The team added a GPS system and a suite of algorithms to retrieve the pertinent heavy-duty data from the vehicle's CANbus.

• SAE J1939 probe data are regularly carried on the CANbus.
• The on-board unit (OBU) manager extracts the data periodically and sends the data, along with location information from the GPS system, to a roadside unit (RSU) or cellular infrastructure.
• The RSU converts the received byte stream into a message following the extensible markup language (XML) standard and sends it to the heavy-duty processing subsystem.
• The heavy-duty subsystem accepts the data from multiple RSUs and makes that data available for other applications that subscribe to the data.

The map interface module subscribes to the data, parses the XML message and displays the data to the user.

Future

By successfully integrating the dynamic heavy-duty vehicle probe data system into a simple and intuitive prototype, SwRI has taken the first step in implementing a heavy-duty probe solution into freight, construction, and DOT fleets. The next steps in our continuing process are to:

• Integrate heavy-duty vehicle probe data into DOT traffic management systems
• Incorporate the system into commercial fleet management for sparse system deployments
• Apply automated vehicle location technology for municipal heavy-duty vehicles

Related Terminology

intelligent transportation systems  •  ITS  •  automation and data systems  •  heavy-duty vehicle probe data  •  SAE J1939  •  truck data collection