Self-charging transit network design using multiple dynamic wireless charging technologies.

Dynamic wireless charging technologies enable power transfer to electric vehicles while in motion. For transit applications, such technologies can reduce electric buses' idle time required for charging. In this study, we propose and analyze a self-charging transit network design problem. A self-charging transit network consists of routes such that the electric buses operating on these routes are charged solely while in motion. First, we introduce the self-charging route and transit network concepts. After that, the optimization model for establishing a self-charging transit network in a cost-minimum way is formulated. In this model, multiple dynamic wireless charging technologies can be used on the network to make the routes self-charging. The resulting model is NP-hard; and therefore, we develop a multi-start neighbor search heuristic as an alternative solution method. A set of numerical studies are conducted to demonstrate the self-charging transit network problem with an example, evaluate the efficiency of the proposed heuristic method, and present several sensitivity analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]