Talebpour drives energy-efficient next-generation vehicles

Alireza Talebpour, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign professor and Illinois Center for Transportation mobility autonomy lead, is helping connected and autonomous vehicles safely hit the road in a project with Argonne National Laboratory sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.

The project, Evaluation of Eco-Driving Automated Driving Controls in Highway Scenarios ENACT, will focus on integrating energy-efficient automated driving controls developed by Argonne within the University of Illinois’ advanced motion planning framework.

Motion planning uses input from sensors to tell vehicles what is the safest, most efficient maneuver at any given time. Automated driving controls perform tasks such as steering, breaking or accelerating to make sure such maneuvers are followed.

Talebpour and Argonne aim to make automated driving controls more energy efficient, optimizing vehicle speed, acceleration and movement to minimize fuel consumption and maximize energy efficiency.

Over the three-year project, which began September 2024, researchers will help enable on-road testing of an automated vehicle owned and operated by the University of Illinois featuring energy-efficient automated driving controls developed by Argonne.

They will integrate Argonne’s controller with existing modules as well as demonstrate the energy benefits of the developed automated driving control.