Charging scheduling and route planning for modular bus systems considering non-linear charging profile
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Date
2025
Subject Area
mode - bus, operations - performance, operations - scheduling, infrastructure - vehicle, planning - route design, planning - methods, place - asia
Keywords
Modular vehicle, Modular bus systems, Charging scheduling and route planning, Nonlinear charging profile function, In-motion charging
Abstract
This work focuses on optimizing charging and route schedules for modular bus (MB) systems. Given a set of modular vehicle units, which includes MB and modular energy provider (MEP) units — innovative modular units capable of charging MB units on the move — along with a set of travel demands, the objective is to determine schedules that minimize total costs. We propose two strategies, namely Modular Bus Substitution (MBS) and On-the-move MEP-to-MB Charging (mEV2c), to facilitate the charging of modular bus units. MBS enables the swapping of fully charged vehicles at the depot with low-battery vehicles operating on the road network, while mEV2c allows MEP units to provide on-the-move charging to MB units. Firstly, taking into account the non-linear charging profile function of batteries, we create a mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) model to describe the problem proposed in this paper. Following that, for the sake of computational efficiency, we apply approximation and linearization techniques to establish a series of mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) models derived from the initial MINLP model. Case studies on a real road network demonstrate that our approach exhibits both good solution accuracy (i.e., the optimal solutions of the MILP models closely approximate the optimal solution of the MINLP model) and efficiency. The operational performance of the modular bus system is further revealed through the case analyses, which provide valuable insights for management.
Rights
Permission to publish the abstract has been given by Elsevier, copyright remains with them.
Recommended Citation
Yi, H., Liu, Y., Menéndez, M., & Tang, L. (2025). Charging scheduling and route planning for modular bus systems considering non-linear charging profile. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, 179, 105292.
Comments
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http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/0968090X