Thesis proposal: The Virtual Electrical Vehicle

Background
The oil dependency is high and the load on the environment is higher than ever which calls for a change into a more environmental friendly behaviour and to change into and adapt to a more sustainable lifestyle – for all people in the western and developing countries.
A small but yet important step towards this is to increase the knowledge of the energy used while driving a conventional compared to an electric propulsion vehicle. This can be achieved by providing on-line information about your energy consumption during travelling.
Problem description
To be able to increase the awareness of the energy consumption, environment impact and cost of your travel it may be beneficial to have an on-line monitoring application in your smartphone that tracks your behaviour during travelling, for example while driving your car. The application should estimate the energy consumption during driving and the corresponding energy consumption if you were driving an electric propulsion vehicle. It is also not evident where and when the electric vehicle should be charged – this should be incorporated in the smartphone application –giving a realistic feeling around the practical handling of an electric vehicle. Information about the current vehicle should be compared to one of a number of electrical vehicles available on the market. The GPS sensor in the smartphone will give information about the speed, elevation, etc. that is necessary to estimate the energy consumption for both the current, conventional vehicle and the virtual electrical vehicle.
Purpose and aim
The main purpose of the project is to increase awareness about the energy consumption during driving a conventional vehicle and being able to compare the consumption to an imaginary electrical vehicle. The aim is therefore to build an application for a smartphone that can present the energy consumption levels and give the user a realistic feeling on range capacity and where and when the electric vehicle should be charged. The application should provide information about the benefits gained by using an electric vehicle instead of a conventional vehicle.
We are searching for
Highly motivated students that have a genuine interest in smartphone application development.
The student will
Be given the opportunity to work in an innovative environment and develop an application that will increase environmental awareness of road users.

For further information please contact Cristofer Englund at Viktoria institute