MILAS - Modulare intelligente induktive Ladesysteme für autonome Shuttles

Project description

Goal of the MILAS project is to investigate and evaluate the use of inductive charging systems for electric shuttle bus transport systems, to check and underline their feasibility, to discover and solve obstacles in fleet applications while pointing out use cases and concepts from a systemic view.

The project consists of two stages: in the first stage a prototype system with autonomous driving shuttles and inductive charging systems is tested at the company Valeo in Kronach-Neuses followed by a pilot system in the town of Bad Staffelstein with a test track of about 3 km. To decrease the environmental impact, the electrically powered shuttle busses move CO2 neutral by utilizing energy storage systems and renewable energy sources.

To charge the batteries of the shuttle busses with conductive charging systems is not feasible as the charging process is hard to automatize and the system is exposed to vandalism and harsh weather conditions. Instead, static and dynamic wireless charging systems are tested in the project that can be inserted into the protective road surface. But, these charging systems create stray magnetic fields that can potentially be harmful for humans or lead to electromagnetic compatibility problems in their vicinity. Therefore, the Chair of Electromagnetic Theory of the University of Wuppertal has to

• simulate the field and temperature distribution of the static and dynamic inductive charging systems,
• simulate the human exposure in and next to the shuttle bus (see figure for an example exposure situation) with high resolution models for both charging concepts,
• evaluate potential electromagnetic compatibility problems via simulations of the inductive charging systems,
• investigate active and passive shielding concepts for the stray fields,
• check for possible problems of two charging busses next to each other,
• and test the dielectric strength as well as material aging to ensure and validate a safe system so that this pilot project can be utilized, applied and scaled to fit further rural and urban regions.

to ensure and validate a safe system so that this pilot project can be utilized, applied and scaled to fit further rural and urban regions.

Project-related publications