EV Dial-a-Ride Routing with Preplanned Charging Schedules
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current dial-a-ride systems face scalability issues in determining optimal routes for electric vehicles that incorporate charging sessions, as existing methods are computationally intensive and do not effectively manage battery discharge and recharging within a large number of requests.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method that first sets a charging schedule for electric vehicles, including the order and duration of charging stations, and then determines routes through pick-up and drop-off locations, using algorithms like large neighborhood search or tabu search to optimize route planning without requiring compute-intensive operators for charging session insertion.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If heuristic approaches with compute-intensive operators are used to insert charging sessions into routes, then the quality of planned routes improves, but scalability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the route planning problem into two distinct phases: first determining charging sessions independently, then inserting ride requests into the routes containing charging sessions. This segmentation avoids the computational complexity of simultaneously optimizing both charging and routing decisions, thereby improving scalability while maintaining route quality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary action by determining charging sessions before inserting ride requests into the routes. This preliminary determination of charging sessions simplifies the subsequent route optimization problem, as the charging constraints are already established, reducing computational requirements and improving scalability.
2Reliability
If charging sessions are inserted into routes using compute-intensive operators, then battery discharge constraints are satisfied, but computational effort increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent separates the charging session determination from the route optimization, handling battery discharge constraints in a preliminary phase. This segmentation reduces the computational complexity of the main routing problem while ensuring battery constraints are satisfied, as charging sessions are predetermined based on battery requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the charging session determination as a separate, independent subproblem from the overall routing optimization. By taking out the charging constraints and handling them separately, the main routing problem becomes computationally more tractable while still ensuring battery discharge constraints are met through the predetermined charging schedule.
3Manufacturing precision
If exact approaches are used to solve the electric vehicle dial-a-ride problem, then optimal routes are found, but scalability to large numbers of requests deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the complex optimization problem into manageable phases: determining charging sessions, then inserting ride requests. This segmentation transforms an intractable exact optimization problem into a series of simpler subproblems that can be solved efficiently even for large numbers of requests, improving scalability while maintaining solution quality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary determination of charging sessions before tackling the route optimization with ride requests. This preliminary action reduces the dimensionality and complexity of the subsequent optimization problem, enabling efficient handling of large-scale instances that would be intractable for exact approaches.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
The present invention relates to a method for determining routes of electric vehicles (EV1, EV2, ... , EVK) by a dial-a-ride system. The method is performed by a processor comprising the steps of obtaining (S1) ride requests, each of which indicates at least a pick-up location; setting (S2) a charging schedule indicating, for each electric vehicle (EV1, EV2, ... , EVK), charging stations (CS1, ... , CSc) to visit on a route, an order in which the charging stations (CS1, ... , CSc) are visited, and a charging duration for each visited charging station (CS1, ... , CSc); and determining (S3) the routes through the pick-up locations and the charging stations (CS1, ... , CSc) taking into account the charging schedule.