Research Projects

A smart city is not the place where the rich people use cars but the one where everyone uses public transport. Public transport plays a key role in improving the quality of life in cities. Nowadays, cities across the world are focusing on the efficient deployment of electric buses. However, it is not pragmatic to replace all existing diesel buses with electric buses instantly. Transit agencies do not have sufficient funds for that, thus are planning to deploy electric buses in successive phases. Therefore, for each phase, the identification of the optimal set of routes is a crucial task for the transit agencies. This work will develop optimization models and efficient solution algorithms for the same. This will be accomplished by first, establishing a relationship between the driving cycle completion time and other key attributes such as passenger load, outside temperature, opportunity charging infrastructure, battery life, etc. Second, identifying the optimal number of electric buses required on each route and a subset of the route network. Finally, identifying the optimal set of routes for the given number of available electric buses of each type in each phase. The developed solution algorithms will be implemented in Python using IBM CPLEX optimization solver. Finally, the results will be implemented on the ground through collaborating with city transit authorities. We are already collaborating with Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporations (BMTC) for the last one year. We have also developed a toolkit for them and which has won the Smart Move Urban Mobility Challenge 2020-21. Thus, we are confident that the solution of this project will be validated easily with BMTC and other transport agencies.