Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Qi, Jiaju, Lei, Lei, Jonsson, Thorsteinn, Niyato, Dusit
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.10296
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866913839902097408
author Qi, Jiaju
Lei, Lei
Jonsson, Thorsteinn
Niyato, Dusit
author_facet Qi, Jiaju
Lei, Lei
Jonsson, Thorsteinn
Niyato, Dusit
contents The growing adoption of Electric Buses (EBs) represents a significant step toward sustainable development. By utilizing Internet of Things (IoT) systems, charging stations can autonomously determine charging schedules based on real-time data. However, optimizing EB charging schedules remains a critical challenge due to uncertainties in travel time, energy consumption, and fluctuating electricity prices. Moreover, to address real-world complexities, charging policies must make decisions efficiently across multiple time scales and remain scalable for large EB fleets. In this paper, we propose a Hierarchical Deep Reinforcement Learning (HDRL) approach that reformulates the original Markov Decision Process (MDP) into two augmented MDPs. To solve these MDPs and enable multi-timescale decision-making, we introduce a novel HDRL algorithm, namely Double Actor-Critic Multi-Agent Proximal Policy Optimization Enhancement (DAC-MAPPO-E). Scalability challenges of the Double Actor-Critic (DAC) algorithm for large-scale EB fleets are addressed through enhancements at both decision levels. At the high level, we redesign the decentralized actor network and integrate an attention mechanism to extract relevant global state information for each EB, decreasing the size of neural networks. At the low level, the Multi-Agent Proximal Policy Optimization (MAPPO) algorithm is incorporated into the DAC framework, enabling decentralized and coordinated charging power decisions, reducing computational complexity and enhancing convergence speed. Extensive experiments with real-world data demonstrate the superior performance and scalability of DAC-MAPPO-E in optimizing EB fleet charging schedules.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_10296
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Optimizing Electric Bus Charging Scheduling with Uncertainties Using Hierarchical Deep Reinforcement Learning
Qi, Jiaju
Lei, Lei
Jonsson, Thorsteinn
Niyato, Dusit
Machine Learning
The growing adoption of Electric Buses (EBs) represents a significant step toward sustainable development. By utilizing Internet of Things (IoT) systems, charging stations can autonomously determine charging schedules based on real-time data. However, optimizing EB charging schedules remains a critical challenge due to uncertainties in travel time, energy consumption, and fluctuating electricity prices. Moreover, to address real-world complexities, charging policies must make decisions efficiently across multiple time scales and remain scalable for large EB fleets. In this paper, we propose a Hierarchical Deep Reinforcement Learning (HDRL) approach that reformulates the original Markov Decision Process (MDP) into two augmented MDPs. To solve these MDPs and enable multi-timescale decision-making, we introduce a novel HDRL algorithm, namely Double Actor-Critic Multi-Agent Proximal Policy Optimization Enhancement (DAC-MAPPO-E). Scalability challenges of the Double Actor-Critic (DAC) algorithm for large-scale EB fleets are addressed through enhancements at both decision levels. At the high level, we redesign the decentralized actor network and integrate an attention mechanism to extract relevant global state information for each EB, decreasing the size of neural networks. At the low level, the Multi-Agent Proximal Policy Optimization (MAPPO) algorithm is incorporated into the DAC framework, enabling decentralized and coordinated charging power decisions, reducing computational complexity and enhancing convergence speed. Extensive experiments with real-world data demonstrate the superior performance and scalability of DAC-MAPPO-E in optimizing EB fleet charging schedules.
title Optimizing Electric Bus Charging Scheduling with Uncertainties Using Hierarchical Deep Reinforcement Learning
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.10296