Design, Implementation, and Analysis of a Testbed Environment for BLE Mesh Networks Using Autonomous Micro EVs

Developers and engineers conduct various experiments to innovate BLE Mesh technology for electric vehicles (EVs) for specific platform services. Performing these experiments frequently with actual EVs is both challenging and involves significant expense and time. This testbed addresses key challenges by providing a practical environment for Zephyr RTOS. It offers access to a cost-effective micro-EV platform equipped with BLE Mesh networking functionalities, seamlessly integrating with existing tools and technologies from SOLshare Ltd, including the SOLdongle, Cholo Garage App, and Dashboard. The designed platform substantially reduces the expense and time spent during implementation and deployment of BLE Mesh technologies, ensuring optimal service delivery to end users. Featuring multiple autonomous micro EVs operating indoors, it enables performance assessment of mesh technology prior to real-world field tests. Developers can access real-time data such as kilometers driven and state of charge (SOC) via a third-party mobile application (Cholo Garage), and evaluate network performance through relevant tests. Results from test cases performed on the platform help estimate the reliability of both the technology and applications.