Internet Of Electric Vehicles Research Articles

Providing Active Charging Services: An Assignment Strategy With Profit-Maximizing Heat Maps for Idle Mobile Charging Stations

In Internet of Electric Vehicles (IoEV), mobile charging stations (MCSs) have been deployed to complement fixed charging stations. Typically, MCSs are assigned to charge the electric vehicles with insufficient electricity which have made charging requests (termed IEVs). Moreover, there are some electric vehicles with insufficient electricity which have not made charging requests (termed quasi-IEVs). If idle MCSs are allowed to actively track quasi-IEVs according to their potential charging demand, then more IEVs could be promptly charged, and thus the charging profits of MCSs could be increased. However, due to the private ownership of electric vehicles, some private information cannot be provided in the potential charging demand of quasi-IEVs (e.g., the destinations and residual electricity), making the potential charging profits of idle MCSs hard to be evaluated, and thereby the proper assignments of idle MCSs are difficult to decide. To this end, we introduce the profit-maximizing heat maps to depict the potential charging demand of quasi-IEVs and evaluate the potential charging profits of idle MCSs. A profit-maximizing heat map remarks the positions around quasi-IEVs and displays them as continuous areas. Specifically, the different shades of colours are used to distinguish the quantities of potential charging profits of idle MCSs, and the sizes of coloured areas are used to indicate the possibility of quasi-IEVs passing through these positions. In this paper, we propose a Profit-Maximizing Assignment Strategy of Idle MCSs (PMASIM) to properly assign the idle MCSs to charge IEVs at selected charging positions, or track some quasi-IEVs according to the profit-maximizing heat maps. Extensive simulations and comparisons demonstrate the superior performance of PMASIM, i.e., with the profit-maximizing heat maps, the charging profits of MCSs are increased, and the proportion of charged IEVs is enhanced as well.

Demand-Driven Charging Strategy Based Distributed Routing Optimization Under Traffic Restrictions in Internet of Electric Vehicles

Demand-Driven Charging Strategy Based Distributed Routing Optimization Under Traffic Restrictions in Internet of Electric Vehicles

Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning Based Scheduling Approach for Mobile Charging in Internet of Electric Vehicles

Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning Based Scheduling Approach for Mobile Charging in Internet of Electric Vehicles

A scalable, efficient, and secured consensus mechanism for Vehicle-to-Vehicle energy trading blockchain

Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) energy trading has emerged as a promising scheme to relieve the load imposed on the grid without intermediaries. The blockchain has always been regarded as the most potential solution for addressing the security and privacy issues of the Internet of Electric Vehicles (IoEV). The consensus mechanism is the core of the blockchain, it determines the security, efficiency, and scalability of the system. However, consensus mechanisms currently employed in V2V energy trading are traditional algorithms, which are unsuitable for the IoEV due to their high computational power and communication overhead. Therefore, we are motivated to propose a Block Alliance Consensus (BAC) mechanism based on Hashgraph. BAC can maintain the high throughput of the Hashgraph, and it solves the problem that the Hashgraph cannot support the dynamic addition and deletion of nodes if it is directly applied to V2V energy trading. We utilize the sharding technique, and each shard generates a consortium blockchain in accordance with the characteristic of the IoEV. The centralized component is retained to ensure macroeconomic control by state and local governments. We design a cryptography-based leader election combined with a reputation incentive mechanism to fairly elect centralized leader committee and motivate honest electric vehicles (EVs). We implement the BAC consensus and V2V energy trading blockchain (ETB) on the Hyperledger Fabric. The performance and practicality of BAC and the V2V ETB are verified through experiments.

A Fast and Secured Vehicle-to-Vehicle Energy Trading Based on Blockchain Consensus in the Internet of Electric Vehicles

The organization and management of electricity markets worldwide are rapidly evolving, moving towards decentralized, distributed, and renewable energy-based generation with solutions based on real-time data exchange. A Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) energy trading has emerged as one of the most promising alternatives for relieving the load imposed on the traditional grid enabling two individuals to buy and sell energy directly without intermediaries. However, the Internet of Electric Vehicles (IoEV) environment is trustless, and such P2P energy trading is prone to different kinds of cyber attacks. Blockchain technology has lately been proposed to implement V2V energy trading to securely and fairly share energy. The consensus mechanism is one of the most important modules of blockchain applied to the V2V network. It determines the efficiency and security among untrustworthy EVs of the energy trading blockchain (ETB). Nevertheless, most works on ETB have currently adopted traditional consensus mechanisms. Due to high computing power and communication overhead, these consensus algorithms are unsuitable for applications requiring real-time services such as energy trading. The efficient and secured Hashgraph is the revolutionary technology of consensus in blockchain and a promising technology suitable for V2V energy trading with frequent transactions. However, Hashgraph does not support the dynamic addition and deletion of nodes and is completely decentralized and vulnerable to Sybil Attack in a large-scale blockchain. Furthermore, this “complete decentralization” model may result in states losing the ability to macro-control the energy industry and even systemic energy security issues. Therefore, we propose a Block Alliance Consensus (BAC) mechanism to solve these problems. BAC can maintain the throughput of Hashgraph and resist Sybil Attack in a large-scale P2P energy trading network. We design a cryptography-based leader election mechanism and adopt a reputation incentive mechanism to motivate honest and cooperative electric vehicles (EVs). Finally, we implement ETB and the BAC consensus mechanism on the Hyperledger Fabric platform. The high efficiency and security of BAC and the blockchain-based V2V energy trading platform are verified through experiments.

Hybrid optimization enabled multi‐aggregator‐based charge scheduling of electric vehicle in internet of electric vehicles

SummaryIn modern days, electric vehicles are quickly industrialized as well as their penetration is also increased highly, which brings more challenges for the power system. The electric vehicle charge scheduling process is vital to encourage the daily usage of the electric vehicle. However, irregular charging methods for electric vehicles may disturb voltage security areas because of their stochastic characteristics. Moreover, an electric vehicle requires recurrent charging owing to its constrained battery capacity, but it is a time‐consuming process. In this article, an effective charge scheduling model is devised using the fractional social sea lion optimization (Fr‐SSLO) algorithm. At first, IoEV network is simulated along with charge station and electric vehicle location. Furthermore, multi aggregator‐based charge scheduling is done for increasing the profit and amount of scheduled electric vehicles. Then, routing is performed based on developed Fr‐SSLO algorithm. Moreover, several fitness measures, including distance, energy and variable energy purchase are included. Here, the devised Fr‐SSLO model is designed by integrating fractional calculus (FC) and sea lion optimization (SLnO) technique along with SOA. After the completion of routing process, charge scheduling is performed based on developed Fr‐SSLO approach. Moreover, various fitness functions are also considered for computing better performance.

Fractional-Sea Lion Optimization Based Routing and Charge Scheduling in Internet of Electric Vehicles

The increasing impact of emissions from fuel vehicles accounted to mitigate the emissions worldwide. This study develops a multi-objective model for charge scheduling in the Internet of Electric Vehicles (IoEV). The objective is to create a method for charging EVs in the IoEV network that is energy conscious. Here, the position of the charge station and the location of the EV are used to simulate the IoEV network. Following network simulation, charging planning is completed. First, the proposed Fractional-based Sea lion optimization algorithm (Fractional-SLO), which was developed by combining Fractional calculus (FC) with Sea Lion Optimization (SLO), is used to choose the path. Distance and energy are used to calculate one’s aptitude for selecting a path. The proposed Fractional-SLO algorithm is then used to schedule charges after that. It is now possible to model the fitness for charge scheduling using delay and energy cost. The proposed Fractional-SLO promised improved performance with a 0.279-min delay and a 20.337-km distance. When 50 vehicles are involved, the proposed method produces delays that are, respectively, 60.21%, 64.87%, 14.69%, and 17.56% smaller than those of the existing methods, namely MDP, Joint EV Routing and Charging Discharge Scheduling Strategy, and Aggregate Cost Perspective.

Mobile Charging Station Placements in Internet of Electric Vehicles: A Federated Learning Approach

In Internet of Electric Vehicles (IoEV), mobile charging stations (MCSs) can be deployed to complement fixed charging stations. Currently, the strategy of MCSs is to move towards the EVs with insufficient energy (IEVs) only after being requested, which is not efficient. However, similar to online car-hailing services, more IEVs could be charged and the charging expenses could be reduced if idle MCSs can actively move towards the potential charging positions. In this paper, the problem of placements of idle MCSs in an IoEV is investigated in order to enhance the proportion of charged IEVs and reduce the charging expenses of IEVs. To this end, we propose a Federated Learning based Placement Decision Method of Idle MCSs (FL-PDMIM) to help the idle MCSs to predict the future charging positions, by exploiting the historical routes of MCSs which contain rich information regarding the charging demand of IEVs. In the proposed framework, the historical routes are trained locally by each MCS, and then the local model parameters and charging records are periodically uploaded to an edge server for a global parameter aggregation. Then, idle MCSs decide their placements according to the predicted charging positions (potential charging positions). The training time can be largely shortened, because the distributed learning on each MCS is executed in parallel. Extensive simulations and comparisons demonstrate the performance superiority of FL-PDMIM. Specifically, with the proposed federated learning-based predictions, the waiting time of IEVs to be served can be significantly shortened, and FL-PDMIM enhances the proportion of charged IEVs and reduces the charging expenses of IEVs effectively.

A Multi-Aggregator Based Charge Scheduling in Internet of Electric Vehicles Using Fractional African Vulture Sail Fish Optimization

Due to increase in pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from Internal Combustion Engines (ICEs), researchers and governments are looking forward for pollution-free, eco-friendly and efficient vehicle called Electric Vehicles (EVs), which is a best alternative for fossil fuel-based transportation systems. Limited battery capacity and frequent charging are essential for EVs. There are unscheduled EVs existed owing to the scarcity of energy and charging plugs. This research designs a multi aggregator-based charge scheduling strategy in Internet of Electric Vehicles (IoEVs) using proposed Fractional African Vulture Sail Fish Optimization (FrAVSO) algorithm. The FrAVSO is obtained by integrating Fractional Calculus (FC) with African Vulture Optimization (AVO) and Sail Fish Optimization (SFO). The energy is predicted utilizing Deep Maxout Network (DMN) and path selection is accomplished utilizing Fractional African Vulture Optimization (FrAVO). The FrAVSO achieved minimum distance of 15.313 Km, maximum energy of 0.252 J, minimum waiting time of 2.546 sec, and maximum profit of 94.978%.

SV-PBFT: An Efficient and Stable Blockchain PBFT Improved Consensus Algorithm for Vehicle-to-Vehicle Energy Transactions

<p>Aiming at the problems of difficult charging, long waiting time and energy loss of IoEV (Internet of electric vehicles) during peak charging period, we design a V2V (vehicle to vehicle) energy trading model to simulate the energy trading process. Considering the problems of malicious node attacks and privacy protection, we combine the V2V energy transaction model with a federated chain and explore a distributed ledger to record the V2V energy transaction process. In addition, we design a credibility mechanism to initialize nodes according to their comprehensive strength and select master nodes based on their behavioral performance of participating in consensus, which ensures the reliability of the consensus. Based on this, we propose a more efficient and promising consensus algorithm SV-PBFT (shapley value-PBFT), which simplifies the consensus process, reduces the communication overhead, and improves the consensus efficiency. The SV-PBFT consensus algorithm is used to replace the traditional consensus algorithm in V2V energy trading. The proposed SV-PBFT algorithm is validated by extensive simulation experiments, and numerical results are provided to confirm the good performance of SV-PBFT in V2V energy trading models.</p> <p> </p>

Efficient Privacy-Preserving and Secure Authentication for Electric-Vehicle-to-Electric-Vehicle-Charging System Based on ECQV

The use of Electric Vehicles (EVs) is almost inevitable in the near future for the sake of the environment and our plant’s long-term sustainability. The availability of an Electric-Vehicle-Charging Station (EVCS) is the key challenge that owners are worried about. Therefore, we suggest benefiting from individual EVs that have excess energy and are willing to share it with other EVs in order to maximize the availability of EVCSs without the need to rely on the existing charging infrastructure. The Internet of Electric Vehicles (IoEV) is gradually gaining traction, allowing for a more efficient and intelligent transportation system by leveraging these capabilities between EVs. However, the IoEV is considered a trustless environment, with untrustworthy trading partners such as data sellers, buyers, and brokers. Data exchanged between the EV and the Energy AGgregator (EAG) or EV/EV can be used to analyze users’ behavior and compromise their privacy. Thus, a Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V)-charging system that is both secure and private must be established. Several V2V-charging systems with security and privacy features have been proposed. However, even if the transmitted communications are entirely anonymous, anonymity alone will not prevent the tracking adversary from reconstructing the target vehicle’s route. These systems frequently fail to find a balance between privacy concerns (e.g., trade traceability to achieve anonymity, and so on) and security measures. In this paper, we propose an efficient privacy-preserving and secure authentication based on Elliptic Curve Qu–Vanstone (ECQV) for a V2V-charging system that fulfils the essential requirements and re-authentication protocol in order to reduce the overhead of future authentication processes. The proposed scheme utilizes the ECQV implicit-certificate mechanism to create credentials and authenticate EVs. The proposed protocols provide efficient security and privacy to EVs, as well as an 88% reduction in computational time through re-authentication, as compared to earlier efforts.

Consensus Mechanism for Blockchain-Enabled Vehicle-to-Vehicle Energy Trading in the Internet of Electric Vehicles

Electric Vehicles (EVs) have emerged as one of the most promising solutions for reducing carbon emissions in smart cities. However, due to the limited battery life of EVs and the scarcity of charging stations, EV drivers are not willing to travel long distances. Thus, blockchain-enabled energy trading (BET) has lately been used to securely share energy among EVs via wireless power transfer (WPT) technology. Blockchain is used to ensure the security and privacy of transactions between untrustworthy EVs in the WPT process. Nevertheless, previous works on BET have relied on existing consensus mechanisms built on the requirements of the cryptocurrency systems. These consensus mechanisms have faced significant challenges in maintaining high reliability, throughput, low latency, and network scalability in V2V energy trading that requires real-time services. To address these issues, we propose a new consensus mechanism that leverages the benefits of Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT) and Proof of Reputation (PoR) called PBFT-based PoR (PPoR). The energy trading process runs in a clustered vehicular network, where validator selection, block generation, and consensus processes are performed in each cluster. We adopt an incentive mechanism based on a Stackelberg game model to optimize the utility of sellers, buyers, and validator nodes, which motivates honest and cooperative nodes. The simulation results show that the proposed scheme reduces buyers’ costs by 21.1% while increasing the utility of sellers by 18%. Moreover, compared to benchmarks, the proposed scheme reduces the transaction processing delay and increases the throughput by more than 47.1% and 15.7%, respectively.

A holistic review on advanced bi-directional EV charging control algorithms

The rapid growth of electric vehicles (EVs) has promised a next-generation transportation system with reduced carbon emission. The fast development of EVs and charging facilities is driving the evolution of Internet of Vehicles (IoV) to Internet of Electric Vehicles (IoEV). IoEV benefits from both smart grid and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies which provide advanced bi-directional charging services and real-time data processing capability, respectively. The major design challenges of the IoEV charging control lie in the randomness of charging events and the mobility of EVs. In this article, we present a holistic review on advanced bi-directional EV charging control algorithms. For Grid-to-Vehicle (G2V), we introduce the charging control problem in two scenarios: 1) Operation of a single charging station and 2) Operation of multiple charging stations in coupled transportation and power networks. For Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G), we discuss how EVs can perform energy trading in the electricity market and provide ancillary services to the power grid. Besides, a case study is provided to illustrate the economic benefit of the joint optimization of routing and charging scheduling of multiple EVs in the IoEV. Last but not the least, we will highlight some open problems and future research directions of charging scheduling problems for IoEVs.

Authentication and Billing for Dynamic Wireless EV Charging in an Internet of Electric Vehicles

Dynamic wireless charging (DWC) is a promising technology to charge Electric Vehicles (EV) using on-road charging segments (CS), also known as DWC pads. In order to ensure effective utilization of this on-the-road charging service, communication and coordination need to be established between the EVs and the different network entities, thereby forming an Internet of Electric Vehicles (IoEV). In an IoEV, EVs can utilize different V2X communication modes to enable charging scheduling, load management, and reliable authentication and billing services. Yet, designing an authentication scheme for dynamic EV charging presents significant challenges given the mobility of the EVs and the short contact time between the EVs and the charging segments. Accordingly, this work proposes a fast, secure and lightweight authentication scheme that allows only authentic EVs with valid credentials to charge their batteries while ensuring secure and fair payments. The presented scheme starts with a key pre-distribution phase between the charging service company (CSC) and the charging pad owner (PO), followed by a hash chain and digital signature-based registration and authentication phase between the EV and the CSC, before the EV reaches the beginning of the charging lane. These preliminary authentication phases allow the authentication between the EVs and the charging segments to be performed using simple hash key verification operations prior to charging activation, which reduces the computational cost of the EVs and the CS. Symmetric and asymmetric key cryptography are utilized to secure the communication between the different network entities. Analysis of the computational and transmission time requirements of the proposed authentication scheme shows that, for an EV traveling at 60 km/h to start charging at the beginning of the charging lane, the authentication process must be initiated at least 1.35 m ahead of the starting point of the lane as it requires ≃81 ms to be completed.

Blockchain-Enabled Two-Way Auction Mechanism for Electricity Trading in Internet of Electric Vehicles

As people pay more attention to environment protection, the number of electric vehicles (EVs) is gradually increasing. Energy trading management for EVs is becoming a challenge. However, existing research has not considered the problem of information sharing between energy traders and issues surrounding the protection of user privacy. Therefore, in this article, we propose a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) electricity trading architecture based on blockchain. All energy transactions of EVs can be recorded on the blockchain ledger to ensure privacy and smart contracts work as agents for pricing and optimal energy allocation. Furthermore, we introduce a two-way auction mechanism based on the Bayesian game and design a new price adjustment strategy. Finally, we propose a bidirectional auction mechanism based on the Bayesian game approach. We use extensive simulations to evaluate the performance of our proposed algorithm. Simulation results show that the social welfare and cost performance of our algorithm can be improved by up to 102.8% and 319%, respectively.

Blockchain Based Data and Energy Trading in Internet of Electric Vehicles

The drastic increase in real-time vehicle generated data of various types has imparted a great concept of data trading in vehicular networks. Whereas immense usage of Electric Vehicles (EVs) as mobile energy carriers have supported distributed energy trading due to their bidirectional charging and discharging capabilities. The trustless environment of Internet of Electric Vehicles (IoEV), including fuel vehicles and EVs, encounters trading disputes and conflicting interests among trading parties. To address these challenges, we exploit consortium blockchain to maintain transparency and trust in trading activities. Smart contracts are used to tackle trading disputes and illegal actions. Data duplication problem occurs when a dishonest user sell previously traded data multiple times for financial gain. Therefore, data duplication validation is done through previously stored hash-list at roadside units (RSUs) employed with bloom filters for efficient data lookup. Removing data duplication at an earlier stage reduces storage cost. Moreover, an elliptic curve bilinear pairing based digital signature scheme is used to ensure the reliability and integrity of traded data. To ensure persistent availability of traded data, InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is used, which provides fault-tolerant and a reliable data storage without any single point of failure. On the other hand, the energy trading transactions among EVs face some security and privacy protection challenges. An adversary can infer the energy trading records of EVs, and launch the data linkage attacks. To address this issue, an account generation technique is used that hides the energy trading trends. The new account generation for an EV depends upon its traded volume of energy. The experimental results verify the efficiency of the proposed data and energy trading scheme in IoEV with the reliable and secure data storage.

A Sensory Similarities Approach to Load Disaggregation of Charging Stations in Internet of Electric Vehicles

Intelligent transportation systems (ITSs) have become popular in recent years as an essential requirement for safer and more efficient transportation systems. Internet of Electric vehicles (IoEV) as well as their hybrid forms provide an ideal means of supporting sustainability within an ITS. The control of charging/discharging of EV is still a challenge, despite the tremendous research progress to date in the field. In this paper, the use of charging station data and binary vectorization are proposed in order to provide timely insights on the dynamic behavior of charging processes. A Bag-of-Power-States model has been created for similarity measurement of charging stations within given time periods. The results of experimentations using synthetic data have shown that the proposed Bag-of-Power-States model is computationally feasible and provides useful results for optimizing the scheduling of power supply to charging stations that may be located across a wide range of distances, over the same period of time.

Blockchain-Enhanced High-Confidence Energy Sharing in Internet of Electric Vehicles

To introduce the opportunities brought by plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) to the energy Internet, we propose a local vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) energy trading architecture based on fog computing in social hotspots and model the social welfare maximization (SWM) problem to balance the interests of both charging and discharging PHEVs. Considering transaction security and privacy protection issues, we employ a consortium blockchain in our designed energy trading architecture, which is different from the traditional centralized power systems, to reduce the reliance on trusted third parties. Moreover, we improve the practical Byzantine fault tolerance (PBFT) algorithm and introduce it into a consensus algorithm, called the delegated proof of stake (DPOS) algorithm, to design a more efficient and promising consensus algorithm, called DPOSP, which greatly reduces resource consumption and enhances consensus efficiency. To encourage PHEVs to participate in V2V energy transactions, we design an energy iterative bidirectional auction (EIDA) mechanism to resolve the SWM problem and obtain optimal charging and discharging decisions and energy pricing. Finally, we conduct extensive simulations to verify the proposed DPOSP algorithm and provide numerical results for a comparison with the performance of the genetic algorithm and the Lagrange algorithm in achieving EIDA.

Game and Contract Theory-Based Energy Transaction Management for Internet of Electric Vehicle

With the development and expansion of smart grid systems, vehicle-to-grid (V2G) has become a new type of energy interaction based on Internet of Electric Vehicles (IoEVs). By leveraging the charging/discharging capabilities of EVs, V2G can be implemented in smart grid to enable intelligent energy transactions and reduce the unbalance of supply and demand. However, the implementation of interaction between the existing V2G technology and IoEVs faces the problems of high-complexity energy transaction management, insufficient computing capability, poor scalability, and lack of incentive mechanisms. The three-tier bi-directional energy transaction management strategies based on game and contract theory have been proposed. Firstly, the optimal pricing and EV discharging strategy is obtained based on the non-cooperative Stackelberg game and the energy-price equilibrium. Secondly, in order to optimize the utility of EAG, the information asymmetry incentive mechanism based on contract theory is proposed. This mechanism can effectively stimulate EVs to contribute to V2G energy transaction and further improve social benefits considering the energy transmission loss and battery life cycle degradation. To reduce the communication as well as processing latency and improve the efficiency of energy transaction management, edge computing has been incorporated. Simulation results show that the performance of the proposed scheme significantly outperforms other existing schemes under various scenarios.

Blockchain and Computational Intelligence Inspired Incentive-Compatible Demand Response in Internet of Electric Vehicles

By leveraging the charging and discharging capabilities of Internet of electric vehicles (IoEV), demand response (DR) can be implemented in smart cities to enable intelligent energy scheduling and trading. However, IoEV-based DR confronts many challenges, such as a lack of incentive mechanism, privacy leakage, and security threats. This motivates us to develop a distributed, privacy-preserved, and incentive-compatible DR mechanism for IoEV. Specifically, we propose a consortium blockchain-enabled secure energy trading framework for electric vehicles (EVs) with moderate cost. To incentivize more EVs to participate in DR, a contract theory-based incentive mechanism is proposed, in which various contract items are tailored for the unique characteristics of EV types. The contract optimization problem falls into the category of difference of convex programing, and is solved by using the iterative convex–concave procedure algorithm. Furthermore, we consider the scenario where the statistical knowledge of the EV type is unknown. In such a case, we demonstrate how to derive the probability distribution of the EV type by exploring computational intelligence-based state of charge estimation techniques, e.g., Gaussian process regression. Finally, the security and efficiency performance of the proposed scheme is analyzed and validated.