Increasing Electric Vehicles Utilization in Transit Fleets using Learning, Predictions, Optimization, and Automation

Abstract: This work presents a novel hierarchical approach to increase Battery Electric Buses (BEBs) utilization in transit fleets. The proposed approach relies on three key components. A learning-based BEB digital twin cloud platform is used to accurately predict BEB charge consumption on a per vehicle, per driver, and per route basis, and accurately predict the time-to-charge BEB batteries to any level. These predictions are then used by a Predictive Block Assignment module to maximize the BEB fleet utilization. This module computes the optimal BEB daily assignment and charge management strategy. A Depot Parking and Charging Queue Management module is used to autonomously park and charge the vehicles based on their charging demands. The paper discusses the technical approach and benefits of each level in architecture and concludes with a realistic simulations study. The study shows that if our approach is employed, BEB fleet utilization can increase by 50% compared to state-of-the-art methods.