# Cost-optimal Fleet Management Strategies for Solar-electric Autonomous Mobility-on-Demand Systems

**Authors:** Fabio Paparella, Theo Hofman, Mauro Salazar  
**arXiv:** [2305.18816](https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.18816)  
**Date:** 2023-05-30  
**Summary page:** https://www.summarizepaper.com/en/paper/2305.18816v1/

## Key points

- Integration of solar energy in mobility systems, specifically Solar-electric Autonomous Mobility-on-Demand (AMoD) systems
- Utilization of solar roofs installed on vehicles to generate solar energy
- Optimization of autonomous vehicle operation in terms of serving passenger requests, charging, and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) operations
- Modeling fleet management issue using directed acyclic graphs and formulating it as a mixed-integer linear program
- Application to a case study of Gold Coast, Australia, considering electricity price fluctuations resulting from integration of solar power
- Incorporating a solar-electric fleet can reduce total cost of fleet operation by 10-15% compared to electric-only counterpart
- Larger battery sizes for V2G operations can significantly lower operational costs and even generate profits
- Potential benefits of integrating substantial solar energy components into mobility systems include cost savings and improved operational efficiency in Solar-electric AMoD systems

## Summary

This paper explores the integration of solar energy in mobility systems, specifically focusing on Solar-electric Autonomous Mobility-on-Demand (AMoD) systems. These systems utilize solar roofs installed on vehicles to generate solar energy, which directly contributes to their energy consumption. The goal is to optimize the operation of these autonomous vehicles in terms of serving passenger requests, charging, and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) operations. To address this optimization problem, the authors model the fleet management issue using directed acyclic graphs and formulate it as a mixed-integer linear program. This program can be solved using off-the-shelf solvers. The framework is then applied to a case study of Gold Coast, Australia, where the fleet's optimal operation is analyzed while considering electricity price fluctuations resulting from a significant integration of solar power in the total energy mix. The results demonstrate that incorporating a solar-electric fleet can lead to a reduction in the total cost of fleet operation by 10-15% compared to an electric-only counterpart. Additionally, the study reveals that for V2G operations using larger battery sizes can significantly lower operational costs by trading larger volumes of energy and even generating profits. Overall, this research highlights the potential benefits of integrating substantial solar energy components into mobility systems. By optimizing fleet management strategies and leveraging solar power generation from vehicle-installed solar roofs, it is possible to achieve cost savings and improve overall operational efficiency in Solar-electric AMoD systems.