| PhD Viva

Name of the Speaker: Mr. Thomas P Rajan (EE22D025)
Guide: Dr. Boby George
Online meeting link: https://meet.google.com/zcg-hxer-uxn
Date/Time: 14th August 2025 (Thursday), 3 PM
Title: Design and Development of Advanced Sensing Schemes and Systems to Aid Wireless Charging of Electric Vehicles

Abstract :

Wireless charging is gaining popularity among electric vehicles (EVs) due to its convenience and enhanced electrical safety. The practicality of new generation EVs such as e-scooters and other Electric Personal Transporters (EPTs), can be further enhanced if extended charging pad arrays, that support flexible parking can be offered to them. Such charging pads can work, only if key functions like detecting the presence of the vehicle, assessing its alignment w.r.t the charging pad, and differentiating it from foreign metal objects are carried out by a sensing system.

To address these sensing requirements, the charging coils themselves were used as the sensing element, eliminating the need for modifications and access to the vehicle-side. Also, this enables the system to be easily integrated into the existing charging system. During sensing, the charging coils are alternatively excited at a slightly lower frequency than the power transfer frequency. The resulting input current and phase, produce unique magnetic signature for the vehicle, which is utilised to reliably perform the sensing functions.

Moreover, for any wireless charging system to operate, the value of the mutual inductance M between the coils is necessary. Also, the power consumed for charging the battery must be monitored for safety and billing purposes. A transmitter-side sensing solution for these will be addressed by presenting a novel load decoupling technique, coupled with a power sensing coil. The results are encouraging, offering low estimation error, less than 1.2% for M and 3.5% for load power.

The talk will include details about the prototype developed to verify the sensing schemes and the various tests done to ensure robustness of the system.