Elevation based, fuel consumption predictions using a gami cation model : the South African Truck Simulator

Abstract

South Africa is a transport intensive country. Consequently, transportation costs are extremely high, which further snowballs into high logistics costs. High logistics costs negatively in uences the country's ability to compete with developed countries. South Africa must therefore strive to reduce its logistics cost to ensure competitiveness. From the literature, it was found that fuel costs and truck driver wages are the two leading transportation cost drivers. Unfortunately, reducing fuel cost is not as trivial as reducing the distance travelled. An more likely approach is to reduce the total fuel con- sumption by combating the common misconception that the shortest route to a destination will always be the most economical. Creating awareness can result in a di erent mindset in terms of the most economical route. Furthermore, it was found that high truck driver wages are due to the high demand, but short supply of truck drivers in South Africa. Un- fortunately, truck driving training is expensive and it is therefore di cult for an interested individual to get exposure to the truck driving profession. Thus, to reduce South Africa's high logistics cost, the following is required: Combat the common misconception by creating awareness about the e ect of road grade on a heavy vehicle's fuel consumption. Attract more people to the truck driving profession and provide inexpensive truck driving training to alleviate the shortage of truck drivers in South Africa, thereby reducing driver wage costs. This project proposes the creation of a gami cation model to address the needs men- tioned. In simple terms, gam cation means to turn something into a game, such as the act of truck driving. Gami cation adds a sense of enjoyment and is found to be most e ective when applied to an educational context. The suggested gami cation model is a South African version of Euro Truck Simulator 2 (ETS2), referred to as the South African Truck Simulator (SATS). ETS2 is a truck simulation game where a player must deliver various cargo across a realistic depiction of Europe. In order for SATS to be able to create awareness about the e ect of road grade on a truck's fuel consumption, the actual fuel con- sumption output of the simulation game must be sensitive to road grade. This will require a road grade evaluation study. Accordingly, the project consists of two deliverables: An alpha version of SATS. Note that this version will not be fully functional, as the focus is placed on the creation of the South African map. A conclusion as to whether or not SATS's fuel consumption output is sensitive to road grade and if the game could therefore be used to create awareness. The rst deliverable, the South African map, was created using ETS2's build-in map editor. The map consists of South Africa's main transportation network as identi ed in the literature. Special attention was given to detail to ensure that the construction of each intersection replicates its real life-counterpart as much as possible. For the road grade evaluation study, a set of arc's with varying slope percentages were mapped in SATS. Afterwards, multiple simulation runs were driven on each arc to obtain various fuel consumption statistics using telemetry. The three most important telemetry outputs identi ed were the telemetry fuel consumption output, the fuel average consump- tion output and the truck's odometer reading at the end of the simulated journey. It was later concluded that the telemetry fuel consumption output did not incorporate road grade. Fortunately, the fuel average consumption output showed a promising trend. Due to the promising trend, an equation was developed to calculate the total fuel consumption using the fuel average consumption and odometer outputs. The output of this equation was compared with the expected theoretical fuel consumption estimates to determine if SATS's fuel consumption outputs does indeed incorporates road grade. The calculations for the theoretical fuel consumption estimates were based on a literature study. Fortu- nately, the road grade evaluation study concluded that the fuel consumption outputs of the simulation game can be used to accurately predict the fuel consumption when road grade is present, using an equation derived in this project. Accordingly, SATS can be used as an educational tool to create awareness about the e ect of road grade on a heavy vehicle's fuel consumption. A suggested approach to create awareness using SATS, is to create in-game awards when the player selects the route with minimal road grade. This project concludes by stating the belief that SATS will be able to address the needs mentioned. This belief is based on the fact that the simulation game is a form of gami cation applied to an educational context, as well as the fact that SATS's fuel consumption output is sensitive to road grade.