Optiroute

Optimal path-finding for road routes, airplane routes, etc. to save energy & time

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Inspiration

From childhood, I have had a dream to save the world from thousands, or even millions, of Watts of energy usage and make a greener tomorrow. I recently had the idea of Optiroute, which could potentially save thousands of Watts of daily energy usage by road vehicles and planes.

What it does

For anyone who is planning paths over terrains (i.e. road construction routes) or even trying to figure the fastest path for an airplane to reach its destination, this algorithm allows any user to optimize their path over any world data map.

How we built it

I implemented Dijikstra's Optimization algorithm, along with my own map data scaling functions in order to have an algorithm that could optimize real-world paths. Then, I wrote a couple calculation/evaluation functions to evaluate exactly how well the created path worked compared to the shortest length route and thus generate a percentage estimate of the optimized path's comparative benefit.

Challenges we ran into

Implementing Dijikstra's Optimization Algorithm was extremely tough because I started out with a complex, not easily understandable code block from online. I had to debug the code for a while and even add numerous features to change how it drew paths and in what direction the user could travel along.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I am very proud of how well I implemented Dijikstra's Algorithm. Taking an unknown block of code from online and adding 100 lines of new code to better fit it to my data was not an easy task. I am also extremely proud to have developed a product that can save up to 70% of potential energy gain on mountainous road routes.

What we learned

I learned that anything is possible. Two months ago, the entire idea of Optiroute only seemed like a dream-come-true: something that would take at least 6 months to finish. I managed to pull it off in two. I also learned to use and debug code from online- a very difficult, yet important task.

What's next for Optiroute

The next goals include adding new features for more tailored optimization of real road routes and flight routes so this can be implemented by companies. I have already been researching on the algorithms and calculations used by industry and by Google, and am learning about highway route optimization from DOE employees.

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