Six students from the Bochum University of Applied Sciences worked on developing an analysis service for enviroCar last semester. As part of their studies, they developed a pilot system with which one can calculate routes that require the least amount of fuel on average. The basic idea was to create a model which estimates the power/energy consumption for electric cars along predefined routes, thus enabling drivers to determine if they could reach a certain destination with the power available. The students relied on user generated empirical values gathered via enviroCar, e.g. fuel consumption, emission and speed. They used street data from OpenStreetMap, which they edited with ArcGIS Tools.

The project focused on

1. providing street data and compiling empirical values (map matching),
2. calculating empirical values according to time of day and track/route (normalization) and
3. providing routing weights via OGC conform interfaces.

Although the students did not quite reach their goal of calculating empirical values according to the time of day, they have laid the groundwork upon which the analysis service can be expanded and improved. A follow up project is currently in the making. Possible topics include map matching methods, a routing service and consideration of the time of day.