E-Mobility in public transportation: optimal resource scheduling and charging infra-structure

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Natalia Kliewer
• Subject Area: Accounting and Finance ; Data Management, Data-Intensive Systems, Computer Science Methods in Business Informatics ; Traffic and Transport Systems, Intelligent and Automated Traffic
• Term: from 2016 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 321285219

In the course of climate change and the proceeding rejection of fossil energy sources towards renewable energies the importance of alternative engines in the transport sector has increased strongly. Electro mobility occupies a special position in the scope of alternative engines be-cause electric vehicles enable an emission-free movement. For transportation companies there arise new challenges concerning the entrepreneurial plan-ning and controlling processes when deploying electric vehicles. The much lower range of the electric vehicles compared to combustion engine vehicles and the possibility to recharge the battery at some particular charging stations play an important role. The planning step within the planning process of transportation companies which is particularly affected by the additional restrictions is the resource resp. vehicle scheduling step which determines the deployment of vehicles for serving the offered service trips. The research project focuses on the development of novel complex solution methods for vehicle scheduling in public transportation, taking into account the needs and possibilities of electro mobility. Since a reasonably designed charging infrastructure is necessary for an efficient use of electric vehicles, the determination of the charging infrastructure is incorporated into the problem as well. Another important aspect that needs to be considered is the implementation of the technical aspects of the electric mobility technologies, in particular the battery and charging technology. The existing solutions thereby reflect the reality of electro mobility only slightly or not resist, because the battery consumption and loading time often is assumed linear or even constant. If the modelling is extended in such a way that different charging methods and battery technologies are taken into account, the result is on the one hand a significant improvement due to additional degrees of freedom, on the other hand the complexity of the models is increased. These extensions to non-linearities in the technical aspects of electro mobility should be included within the solution methods. Within the requested project starting with a literature review the latest technical information of electro mobility especially of the battery and charging technologies for electric vehicles shall be worked out. After that the results will be discussed with partners from practice and suitably integrated into data sets. The central aspect of the project then consists of developing novel complex solution methods for the vehicle scheduling problem considering the previously gained information about electro mobility. In this context both exact and heuristic solution approaches will be developed as well as integrated approaches for determining the underlying charging infrastructure simultaneously. Eventually the solution methods are implemented and analyzed using the data collected previously.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants