ARPA-E: Enhancing Network Efficiency in Transportation with Novel Signaling Technology (TRANSNET)

Accordingly this modification,

?Clarified Model Performance, See Table 1 in Section I.C of the FOA.

To obtain a copy of the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) please go to the ARPA-E website at https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov ARPA-E will not review or consider consider concept papers submitted through other means. For detailed guidance on using ARPA-E eXCHANGE, please refer to the ARPA-E eXCHANGE User Guide (https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/Manuals.aspx).

Accordingly this modification,

?Inserted certain deadlines, including the deadlines for submitting questions and Full Applications. See Cover Page and Required Documents Checklist.
?Inserted information concerning incentives. See Section I.C of the FOA.
?Inserted information concerning ?Characteristics of the System Model?. See Table 1 in Section I.C of the FOA.
?Clarified ?PERSONALIZED DATA AND PARTICIPATION IN CONROL STRUCTURE?, see Table 2 in Section I.C of the FOA.
?Updated funding agreement start date, see Section II. A of the FOA.
?Provided C.F.R. citation, see Section II.B.3 of the FOA.
?Clarified Cost Sharing, see Section III.B of the FOA.
?Revised the following sections of the FOA to provide guidance on required application forms and the content and form of Full Applications and Replies to Reviewer Comments: Required Documents Checklist and Sections IV.D, IV.E, IV.G of the FOA. Applicants are strongly encouraged to use the templates provided on ARPA‐E eXCHANGE (https://arpa‐e‐foa.energy.gov).
?Inserted criteria that ARPA‐E will use to evaluate Full Applications. See Section V.A.2 of the FOA.
?Inserted criteria that ARPA‐E will use to evaluate Replies to Reviewer Comments in Section V.A.3 of the FOA.
?Inserted Program Policy Factors. See Section V.B.1 of the FOA.
?Inserted information concerning Full Application Notifications. See Section VI.A.3 of the FOA.
?Inserted Administrative and National Policy Requirements. See Section VI.B of the FOA.
?Inserted Reporting Requirements. See Section VI.C of the FOA.
?Inserted information concerning Class Waivers. See Section VIII.F of the FOA.
?Inserted regulations applicable to resulting awards. See Section VIII.I of the FOA.

To obtain a copy of the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) please go to the ARPA-E website at https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov ARPA-E will not review or consider consider concept papers submitted through other means. For detailed guidance on using ARPA-E eXCHANGE, please refer to the ARPA-E eXCHANGE User Guide (https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/Manuals.aspx).

Accordingly this modification,

? Updates Section Reference of ?Applications Specifically Not of Interest,? from I.F to I.E. See Section III.C.2 of the FOA.

To obtain a copy of the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) please go to the ARPA-E website at https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov ARPA-E will not review or consider consider concept papers submitted through other means. For detailed guidance on using ARPA-E eXCHANGE, please refer to the ARPA-E eXCHANGE User Guide (https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/Manuals.aspx).

The mission of ARPA-E is to identify and fund research to translate science into breakthrough energy technologies that are too risky for the private sector and that, if successfully developed, will create the foundation for entirely new industries.

Successful projects will address at least one of ARPA-E?s two Mission Areas:

1. Enhance the economic and energy security of the United States through the development of energy technologies that result in:
a. reductions of imports of energy from foreign sources;
b. reductions of energy-related emissions, including greenhouse gases; and
c. improvement in the energy efficiency of all economic sectors.
2. Ensure that the United States maintains a technological lead in developing and deploying advanced energy technologies.

The Traveler Response Architecture using Novel Signaling for Network Efficiency in Transportation (TRANSNET) program seeks solutions that minimize energy consumption in America?s surface transportation network through the use of network control mechanisms that operate through personalized signals directed at individual travelers.

In 2013, the United States used more than 25% of its energy supply for the purpose of moving people and goods from one place to another, i.e., in the transportation sector. Even modest improvements that reduce transportation energy consumption can reduce energy imports and greenhouse gas emissions, two of ARPA-E?s primary goals. To date, technologies directed at transportation have focused primarily on the diversification of energy supplies (e.g., the production of alternative liquid fuels and electrification) or on improvements in vehicle fuel efficiency (e.g., combustion efficiency, weight reduction, and aerodynamic design). The TRANSNET program takes an alternative, complementary approach through the development of technologies that target both the factors that drive energy consumption and the overall energy efficiency of personal transportation, without changing the mechanical efficiency of each mode (car, bus, train, etc.) within the network.

The time is ripe for this new approach. Today, personal transportation is entering a period of rapid change, enabled by the introduction of new technologies. Such technologies apply not only to the vehicles themselves (e.g., autonomous/semiautonomous vehicles, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V)/vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications, and electric/natural gas fueled vehicles), but also to a number of approaches that enable transportation information to be collected and disseminated by wireless communication and the Internet (e.g., Waze, Uber, Zipcar, and Lyft, as well as social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, etc.). How can these innovative technologies be used to reduce energy use in transportation networks? The answer is not completely clear. But ARPA-E envisions significant opportunities for new and emerging technologies, with deliberate and thoughtful development, to create a framework for a practical system with real-time response to make energy efficiency an integral part of
the optimized transportation network of the future.

ARPA-E believes that the transportation network can be made more efficient, without substantial investment in new infrastructure, improvements in modal efficiency, or perceptible reduction in either the quality-of-service or the reliability of the system. While the size of the impact is difficult to quantify precisely, given the human element, significant energy is wasted in personal transportation: Occupancy is only 40% of nominal capacity for passenger vehicles, driving styles contribute to a 45% reduction in the on-road fuel economy (per driver), and congestion (which is related to non-optimal route choice) increases the energy used in transportation up to 33%, even before soft factors such as lost productivity and lower quality of life are accounted for.

Applicants are challenged to develop mechanisms for individual travelers that both signal and guide them toward improvement of the energy efficiency of the transportation network in multimodal urban areas. Because a purely experimental, complete analysis of the transportation network would be prohibitively expensive and time consuming, ARPA-E seeks the development of simulated network control models of energy use in personal transportation, based on real-world data, that incorporate personalized signaling and guiding mechanisms. A suitable model will need not only to describe the current state of the personal transportation network but also to predict the impact of changes to the network, both from travelers? choices, such as mode and departure time, and from network changes, such as those that result from incidents and lane closures. The model must also be robust with respect to inaccuracies that stem from incomplete and noisy sensor data. Optimization will require development of
a high fidelity system model that allows guidance and control hypotheses to be tested, refined, or discarded in full view of this uncertainty. These hypotheses will be embodied through simulation to achieve ARPA-E?s core objective, a control architecture that enables the practical network control through personalized guidance. The design of this control architecture defines the central challenge of the TRANSNET program.

To obtain a copy of the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) please go to the ARPA-E website at https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov. ARPA-E will not review or consider concept papers submitted through other means. For detailed guidance on using ARPA-E eXCHANGE, please refer to the ARPA-E eXCHANGE User Guide (https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/Manuals.aspx).