CPS: Medium: Dynamic Pricing for Optimal Design of Sustainable Transportation Systems

该项目将研究使用定价来影响人在环网络物理系统中的行为，重点是电动汽车（EV）充电。在EV充电系统中，人类（驾驶员）与网络基础设施（以提供有关充电基础设施的位置和其他特征的信息的应用程序的形式）以及物理基础设施（以EV及其充电基础设施的形式）进行交互。鉴于电动汽车充电可能需要数小时，电动汽车充电基础设施通常用于两个目的，其相对重要性根据上下文动态变化：为车辆加油和提供停车位。通过应用程序传达的动态定价工具能够影响驾驶员的行为，以实现这两个目的的理想结果。该项目的结果将使用格鲁吉亚技术EV充电系统作为测试平台进行测试。拟议的理论和实证工作相结合的动态定价工具的行为影响是高度可转换的价格可以直接传达给消费者的其他系统。价格介导的电动汽车驾驶员行为具有高度的社会相关性，对长期交通系统的可持续性具有重大影响。电动汽车革命将以新的、重要的方式不可避免地影响交通基础设施和能源基础设施，这将改变人们用电和出行的方式。由交通系统电气化引起的新的相互依赖性将导致额外的压力，并可能暴露出新的漏洞，基于动态定价的行为推动可以帮助缓解。该项目包括三个主要的平行活动，重点是表征动态定价影响电动汽车充电网络物理系统行为的潜力。任务1包括大规模的观察性研究，使用一个广泛的，高分辨率的数据库，从一个流行的移动的平台在美国各地的电动汽车充电交易，以了解电动汽车用户如何对价格作出反应。任务2将评估各种规模和多种技术场景下电动汽车充电的系统规模环境影响，使用生命周期评估来考虑车辆，停车场和充电基础设施之间的环境动态。任务3将制定基本的动态定价框架，通过利用任务1和任务2中的行为和环境影响分析来设计动态定价结构，以实现强调运输成本、社会和环境可持续性的各种工程目标。我们的最后一项任务，任务4，利用格鲁吉亚理工学院的实际电动汽车充电平台来实现和测试任务1到3的结果。使格鲁吉亚理工学院校园成为一个生活实验室的主要机制将是与格鲁吉亚理工学院停车和运输服务公司合作，该公司管理着整个校园的22个2级电动汽车充电器。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

This project will study the use of pricing to influence behavior in human-in-the-loop cyber-physical systems with an emphasis on electric vehicle (EV) charging. In EV charging systems, humans (drivers) interact with both cyber infrastructure, in the form of apps that provide information about location and other characteristics of charging infrastructure, and with physical infrastructure, in the form of EVs and their charging infrastructure. Given that EV charging can take hours, EV charging infrastructure often serves two purposes whose relative importance shifts dynamically depending on context: fueling the vehicle and providing a parking spot. Dynamic pricing tools communicated through apps are capable of influencing driver behavior to achieve desirable outcomes in both purposes. The results of the project will be tested using the Georgia Tech EV charging system as a testbed. The proposed combination of theoretical and empirical work on dynamic pricing tools for behavioral influence is highly translatable to other systems where prices can be directly communicated to consumers. Price-mediated EV driver behavior is highly societally relevant, with major ramifications for the sustainability of the long-term transportation system. The electric vehicle revolution will inextricably intertwine transportation infrastructure and energy infrastructure in new and significant ways that will alter how people consume electricity and how people move around. New interdependencies caused by the electrification of the transportation system will induce additional strain and will likely expose new vulnerabilities that dynamic pricing-based behavioral nudges could help mitigate.The project consists of three major parallel activities that focus on characterizing the potential for dynamic pricing to influence behavior in the EV charging cyber-physical system. Task 1 includes large-scale observational studies using an extensive, high-resolution database of electric vehicle charging transactions across the US from a popular mobile platform in order to understand how electric vehicle users respond to price. Task 2 will evaluate the system-scale environmental implications of EV charging at various scales and with multiple technological scenarios, using life cycle assessment to consider environmental dynamics among vehicles, parking, and charging infrastructure. Task 3 will develop foundational dynamic pricing frameworks, to be refined by leveraging analyses of behavior and environmental impact from Tasks 1 and 2 to design dynamic pricing structures in order to achieve various engineering objectives emphasizing cost, social, and environmental sustainability in transportation. Our final task, Task 4, leverages an actual EV charging platform at Georgia Tech to implement and test results from Tasks 1 through 3. The main mechanism to enable the Georgia Tech campus as a living laboratory will be a collaboration with the Georgia Tech Parking and Transportation Services, which manages 22 Level 2 EV chargers across campusThis award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.