Michinori Holdings, Inc. (Michinori HD), Aizu Bus Co., Ltd. (Aizu Bus), DENSO Corporation (DENSO), ABB Bailey Japan Ltd. (ABB Bailey), DAIHEN Corporation (DAIHEN), and Deloitte Tohmatsu Financial Advisory LLC (Deloitte Tohmatsu) were awarded a contract for the R&D and Demonstration Project Toward Realization of Logistics MaaS (Mobility as a Service) Using Commercial Vehicles financed by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in FY2020.
The demonstration project started in October 2020.
AI-based predictive algorithms
In this project, Aizu Bus gathers data from three EV buses, which were manufactured by BYD and have been operated since December 2018.
DENSO will analyze electric mileage and verify the predictive algorithms using AI technology, and DAIHEN will validate the charging management technology for an efficient charge of the EV buses using quick chargers equipped with Synergy Link. The possibility of deploying EV buses will also be studied for each operation office belonging to the group companies of Michinori HD.
Outline of the demonstration test
1. Gathering data from the EV buses and verifying electric mileage
The results of the demonstration will be used as basic data for deploying EV buses in the future
Data are gathered from the EV buses operated by Aizu Bus. It includes vehicle data, such as power consumption and route distances traveled by the EV buses; number of passengers as measured by in-vehicle cameras; operation delay information transmitted from the bus location system; and external environment data, such as weather and snowfall.
DENSO will analyze the gathered data using AI technology and verify the predictive algorithms that take into account changes due to the number of users and the weather per time zone. The results of the demonstration will be used as basic data for deploying EV buses in the future.
2. Demonstration of the charging management technology
In this demonstration, ABB Bailey Japan will create charging schedules optimized based on data such as the operation plan, electricity price, and system capacity, using OPTIMAX®, which is the ABB Ability™ Energy Management Suite solution.
The EV buses will be charged based on the schedules at the Juso Business office of DAIHEN by the Synergy Link technology developed by DAIHEN. The purpose is to establish a technology to charge buses at an appropriate time, control the charging amount, and manage operations in case of large-scale deployment of EV buses.
3. Study of the possibility of deploying EV buses for each operation office
The possibility of full-scale deployment of EV buses will be studied for the operation offices belonging to the group companies of Michinori HD by using the knowledge gained from the demonstration.
Future development
An energy management system for EV buses will be built to monitor energy consumption, coordinate the electricity purchase, and formulate operation plans in an integrated manner. The purpose is to rationalize the initial and operational cost of the EV buses.
By optimizing the operation of EV buses, the feasibility of reduction of the onboard battery capacity and power interchange from onboard batteries will be studied. EV buses will be deployed by taking advantage of the know-how from this study, to contribute to a more sustainable society.