Optimization of electric vehicle charging and scheduling based on VANETs

Abstract

Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs) provide key support for the achievement of intelligent, safe, and efficient driverless transportation systems through real-time communication between vehicles and vehicles, and vehicles and road infrastructure. This paper investigates a joint optimization problem of electric vehicles (EVs) charging management and resource allocation based on VANETs. EV charging requires significantly more time than refueling conventional vehicles, a key factor behind people's reluctance to transition from internal combustion engine vehicles to EVs. Previous works have primarily concentrated on fully-charged vehicles and random matching, which does not solve the problems of vehicle charging delays and long customer waiting times. Considering these factors, we propose a distributed multi-level charging strategy and level-by-level matching method. Specifically, EVs and passengers are categorized into classes based on battery power and target mileage. Vehicles are then allocated to customers in the same or lower levels. Furthermore, the Attentive Temporal Convolutional Networks-Long Short Term Memory (ATCN-LSTM) model is leveraged to predict historical traffic data, supporting anticipatory decision-making. Subsequently, we develop a hierarchical charging and rebalancing joint optimization framework that incorporates charging facility planning. Experimental results obtained under various model parameters exhibit the method's commendable performance, as evidenced by metrics such as operating cost, system response time, and vehicle utilization.