Dynamic Maintenance Blocking for E-Mobility Fleet Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Dynamic transportation networks face challenges in ensuring that personal mobility vehicles, such as e-bikes and e-scooters, have sufficient battery charge for trips, leading to inefficiencies in maintenance and operations, particularly in optimizing technician time and vehicle availability.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a system that periodically blocks electrically-assisted personal mobility vehicles for battery swapping or maintenance based on criteria like technician convenience, battery threshold levels, and location optimization, using a dynamic transportation matching system to determine the best time and location for maintenance to minimize downtime and maximize vehicle availability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If personal mobility vehicles are kept in continuous service, then vehicle availability for users is improved, but battery charge depletion and maintenance needs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary battery swapping before the vehicle's battery is completely depleted. The blocker module proactively removes vehicles from service when battery charge falls below a threshold, preventing complete depletion and ensuring vehicles are swapped with charged batteries before they become inoperable, thus maintaining both availability and reliability
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors battery charge levels and uses this feedback to dynamically control vehicle availability. The blocker module receives real-time battery status information and adjusts vehicle blocking decisions based on current charge levels, creating a closed-loop control system that balances availability with sufficient battery charge
2Reliability
If personal mobility vehicles are blocked for battery swapping, then battery charge sufficiency is improved, but vehicle availability and operational time decrease
Solution Approach 1:
Vehicles are blocked for battery swapping in advance, before their batteries are completely depleted. This preliminary action ensures that vehicles are replaced with fully charged batteries proactively, minimizing the time vehicles are out of service and preventing complete battery exhaustion that would require longer maintenance interruptions
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts the blocking decision based on battery charge threshold parameters. By setting appropriate charge thresholds, the system optimizes the balance between keeping vehicles in service and removing them for swapping, thereby controlling the duration of vehicle unavailability while ensuring sufficient battery charge
3Ease of operation
If manual monitoring and maintenance of personal mobility vehicles is performed, then operational control is maintained, but technician time and operational effort increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements automated self-service through the blocker module that autonomously monitors battery levels and blocks vehicles for maintenance without requiring continuous manual technician intervention. The automated system performs the initial assessment and blocking decisions, reducing the time technicians need to spend on routine monitoring while maintaining operational control
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses automated feedback loops to monitor battery charge levels and trigger blocking decisions. This feedback mechanism replaces manual monitoring with automated sensing and decision-making, significantly reducing technician time while maintaining precise control over vehicle maintenance scheduling
Data Source
AI summary
The disclosed computer-implemented method may include identifying a personal mobility vehicle that is available to reserve for a trip, determining that at least one metric for a level of maintenance for the personal mobility vehicle indicates a need for performing the maintenance on the personal mobility vehicle, determining at least one metric for an operations effort for performing the maintenance at a current location of the personal mobility vehicle, and blocking use of the personal mobility vehicle, to facilitate the operations effort for the performing of the maintenance, based at least in part on the metric for the level of maintenance and at least in part on the metric for the operations effort indicating an advantage to performing the maintenance at the current location. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.