Mobi_System: A Personal Travel Assistance for Electrical Vehicles in Smart Cities Joªo C. Ferreira GuIAA  ADEETC  ISEL Lisbon, Portugal jferreira@deetc.isel.ipl.pt Joªo L. Afonso Centre Algoritmi  DEI  University of Minho Guimarªes, Portugal jla@dei.uminho.pt Abstract - In this work it is proposed the design of a mobile system to assist car drivers in a smart city environment oriented to the upcoming reality of Electric Vehicles (EV). Taking into account the new reality of smart cites, EV introduction, Smart Grids (SG), Electrical Markets (EM), with deregulation of electricity production and use, drivers will need more information for decision and mobility purposes. A mobile application to recommend useful related information will help drivers to deal with this new reality, giving guidance towards traffic, batteries charging process, and city mobility infrastructures (e.g. public transportation information, parking places availability and car & bike sharing systems). Since this is an upcoming reality with possible process changes, development must be based on agile process approaches (Web services). Keywords: Mobile Application; Web Services; Simulation; Electric Vehicle; Energy Market; Smart Grids; Vehicle-to-Grid; Mobile Device I. INTRODUCTION The world population has been progressively concentrating in the cities. Problems associated with urban agglomerations have usually been solved by means of creativity, through infrastructure investments and information technology to support smart solutions. The label smart city should therefore point to clever solutions allowing modern cities to thrive, through quantitative and qualitative improvement in productivity. The concept of the smart city has been quite fashionable in the political arena in recent years. Its main focus seems to be on the role of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) infrastructure, although much research has also been carried out on the role of human capital/education, social and relational capital, and environmental interest, as important drivers of urban growth. The European Union (EU), in particular, has devoted constant efforts to devising a strategy for achieving urban growth in a smart sense on metropolitan areas. Not only the EU, but also other international institutions, believes in a wired ICT- driven form of development. Connected to this new reality, new paradigms are emerging, like the Electric Vehicle (EV), the Smart Grids (SG), the Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G), and the Electrical Markets (EM). EM is the consequence of the deregulation of electricity production and use, where power suppliers and consumers are free to negotiate the terms of their contracts. Also EVs integration on current electrical distribution network, without violating the electrical systems technical restrictions, requires data on energy consumption analysis and smart charging approaches, where EV batteries charging or discharging processes need to be coordinated among the several users and the energy producers. In this complex scenario, information knowledge related with charging periods, prices, decision of charging or discharging EV batteries, needs assistance and several issues have to be considered and analyzed before taking actions. Although enormous data volumes related with this processes are stored day by day, and hour by hour, it is impossible (through human analysis or with traditional technology) to obtain knowledge from this data, in order to take wise decisions. The aim of the proposed Mobi_System is to improve the transit experience of commuters by giving them access to transportation information via a Web enabled mobile device from any location. Transport information can include data about the most affordable trip plan, minimizing the time of the journey, and Real Time Router which allows the user to optimize their trip, as and when conditions change (eg: traffic accidents). Transportation Information Service can provide information about public transport options, routes, arrival times and schedules. The research proposal presented in this paper focuses on the creation of a mobile application to help the users to deal with this new reality. II. MOBI_SYSTEM Being the next big step in automobile industry, electric vehicles continue to have limited autonomy, which associated with the long charging times, limited number of charging stations, and undeveloped smart grid infrastructures, demands for a hard planning of the daily use of the vehicle. Thus, Information Systems play an important role in information society. Mobi_System is a personal assistant oriented to smart cites environment and electric vehicles. This upcoming reality uses the integration of public transportation information in real time traffic information, smart grids, open energy market, and smart cities, with increasing mobility sustainability. The proposed system integrates a diversity of functionalities, illustrated on Figure 1: Positioning Information: The Mobi_System receives the information system of geographical positioning on the current position of the vehicle and the features that enable the calculation of distances between two points. J. C. Ferreira, J. L. Afonso, "Mobi_System: A Personal Travel Assistance for Electrical Vehicles in Smart Cities", ISIE 2011 - IEEE International Symposium on Industrial Electronics, Gdansk, Poland, 27-30 June, 2011, pp.1653-1658, ISBN: 978-1-4244-9310-4, doi: 10.1109/ISIE.2011.5984409