Vehicle routing in urban areas based on the Oil Consumption Weight -Dijkstra algorithm

In this study, the authors refine a route-planning algorithm, in order to improve the route planning strategy in urban areas under traffic congestion. Considering the Oil Consumption Weight (OCW) and route planning methods, they propose an OCW-Dijkstra algorithm. In the algorithm, the parameters concerning the vehicle and driving environment, such as distance, speed, driving time, idling time, travel flow, driving oil consumption and idling oil consumption, are used for producing the OCW with weighted calculation in each section of the journey. In the execution of the algorithm, an adjacency matrix of the OCW is first generated by loading segment description, regional routing and the point information in an urban map. After the initial point and the destination point are selected, the optimal route is planned and generated automatically. In addition, the algorithm has self-learning methods, which can update the parameters and the OCW in real time. From the results of simulating experiments and the comparison with exhaustive algorithm, they find that the OCW-Dijkstra algorithm performs more effectively and robustly, which consequently saves driving time, as well as decreases oil consumption.