Project Repository Summary: EnergyMobile is a routing application designed to create customized least energy cost paths for pedestrians with mobility limitations. It takes a user selected set of addresses and a preferred balance of weighting distance and slope.
Update Information: The first prototype was developed in spring 2021 as a skeletal python script. This current version is current as of December 2021. Updates involved making accuracy and accessability improvements. These include: improving slope accuracy, adding restictions to travel modes, updating weighting and energy equations, creating a user selected mode and address, automating most of the code into a more user friendly repetitive structure, and general cleaning.
Abstract: The goal for this study is to define and find the least energy route between a start and end address for different levels of mobility as selected by the user. This is accomplished via Python script and ArcGIS routing tools. The base data utilized for the project are a feature dataset of metro area roads, 30-meter DEM of Minnesota, and 12 LIDAR LAS blocks from MN DNR. While the prototype program effectively “solved” the problem in the initial study, it calculated energy incorrectly for a single travel mode, displaying results to a clunky UI. This version works via the same design with a number of fundamental improvements. Primarily, it relies on more reasonable energy calculations, creates a more accurate network dataset, allows user input, and utilizes reasonable restrictions. It is also designed to output a cost surface from a start location using the same information. The results will again be verified for feasibility; pedestrians must be able to traverse the path, the route should be found to be the lowest possible energy for the travel mode, and all cases must properly follow set restrictions. The results indicate a significant improvement in both form and function over the first prototype. The results produce different routes for different weighting in a way that makes sense if traced out. Though it may make more sense to add an accessibility module to an existing map platform, this project effectively builds on and displays GIS skills acquired in the graduate program.
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