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RESTful Electric Vehicle Charging (M)

Status: Abgeschlossen

Abstract—The communication between electric vehicles (EVs) and DC Fast Charging stations is based on Internet protocols. The XML-based messaging protocol, however, does not provide full interoperability and extensibility known from the Web. Thus, this project aims at the redesign of the application layer based on the REST architectural style.

Background

The current charging interface for DC Fast Charging of electric vehicles (EVs) is already based on Internet and Web technologies. The control interface called Vehicle-2-Grid (V2G) is standardized in ISO/IEC15118. Back in 2009 when the standardization of that interface was started, the industries agreed not to reuse existing technologies, but to invest in an extensible interface that allows integrating different stakeholders such as drivers, infrastructure operators, grid operators, or utilities. It was the first time for the vehicle side to include such technologies into the control plane of the car.

The DC charging process of an EV is quite complex due to safety considerations, as the charger is off-board on the infrastructure side, yet during charging directly connected to the battery. For that reason there are close to 15 subcomponents in the overall architecture to be controlled by an ad hoc connection between the EV and the infrastructure. The control is implemented at the application layer with XML and a message-based interaction paradigm.

REST promises loose coupling and wide interoperability, and thus greater extensibility compared to message-based communication systems. However, so far REST has not been applied to such complex control tasks especially in technical means. Implementing DC Fast Charging over REST not only improves the extensibility for EVs, but moreover serves as case study for the feasibility of REST for industrial control and automation tasks.

Objectives

In this thesis, we want to evaluate how the EV charging control interface could be evolved by using a RESTful interaction paradigm. The thesis comprises the following subtasks:

  • Investigate the current control aspects of the V2G interface
  • Evaluate applicable REST and HATEOAS aspects for the interface
  • Define a RESTful V2G application layer protocol
  • Realize a prototypical implementation for an existing HW setup
Student/Bearbeitet von: Martin Bochenek (extern)
Contact/Ansprechpartner: Matthias Kovatsch

ETH ZurichDistributed Systems Group
Last updated September 29 2017 04:37:34 PM MET ko