Towards a more optimised electric vehicle system
The future may clearly be electric, but how we get to that future is still clouded with questions and concerns. Take for example the electric vehicle (EV). While these vehicles will play an essential role in reducing the EU’s carbon emissions and energy dependency, drivers still worry about issues such as range, long charging times and a limited electric infrastructure. Addressing these concerns is OPEVA(opens in new window). Bringing together 35 partners from nine European countries(opens in new window), the EU-funded project set out to position EVs as a genuinely reliable and energy-efficient choice for drivers and fleets alike. “Our work advances vehicle routing and battery engineering by moving beyond single-objective, isolated solutions and towards integrated, multi-objective and AI-driven systems that keep energy, safety and security at the centre of decision-making,” explains Tom Dizdarevic, a researcher at Pertimm(opens in new window), the project’s coordinating partner.
Optimising last-mile delivery using electric vehicles
One of those integrated solutions is the KT9 energy-aware routing service. The service aims to make last-mile delivery using EVs genuinely energy aware rather than only distance or time aware. “Traditional routing tools optimise a single objective and ignore the realities of EV operation – energy consumption, limited range and charging behaviour,” notes Ahmet Yazici, a professor at project partner ESOGU(opens in new window). The KT9 routing service addresses this problem by treating last-mile delivery as an EV routing problem with time windows, and explicitly accounts for vehicle characteristics and exogenous data. It does this using an innovative adaptive large neighbourhood search algorithm that combines local search and simulated annealing to simultaneously optimise four objectives: total travel distance, travel time, energy consumption and tardiness. “Last-mile delivery is one of the most costly, congested and emission-intensive segments of the supply chain,” adds Yazici. “By making EV routing more energy-efficient, our solution directly reduces range anxiety, improves fleet utilisation and cuts emissions in exactly the urban settings where they are most harmful.”
Improving EV battery performance
In addition to the routing service, OPEVA delivered advanced battery management system (BMS) algorithms for state-of-health and state-of-charge estimation, fault-tolerant motor control, optical and wireless battery communication, and cybersecurity and tamper-detection features. “Together, these solutions improve EV battery performance, safety, reliability and user confidence while supporting sustainable mobility,” remarks Dino Hrvanovic, senior researcher at project partner ViF(opens in new window). OPEVA also designed a cell management unit (CMU) capable of measuring impedance spectroscopy on individual cells during operation, including large industrial-scale battery modules. “A key aim of the project was to maximise battery usage and to provide dependable residual life and range information to the driver,” says Roberto Simmarino, president and CEO at Sensichips(opens in new window). “Our CMU introduces for the first time the capability to measure impedance spectroscopy at the individual cell level while the battery is in operation.” Other key deliverables include federated and reinforcement learning models for fleet-level battery health prediction, a functioning 48 V smart-BMS demonstrator, and a passive wireless radio-frequency identification sensing chain for temperature and strain monitoring.
Turning concepts into validated EV systems
But the OPEVA project didn’t stop at optimising its components, it validated them together across nine real-world demonstrators. “Thanks to our unique collaborative approach, we turned research concepts into working, field-tested systems,” concludes Dizdarevic. The project’s partners are now working to advance the technology readiness levels of its solutions.
