Electric bicycle using batteries and supercapacitors

In this paper, a traction system useful for an autonomous Electric Vehicle of individual use is described. The developed system is constituted in a first approach by two different power sources: one is constituted by batteries or by fuel cells, and the other by supercapacitors. This paper describes a technical solution joining and accomplishing the usage of two energy storage systems in the same traction system. In the developed system, the supercapacitors run as element that store energy temporarily and that can be used to retrieve energy. Starting from the functional characteristics of typical electrical vehicles and characterization of a typical routing profile, the energy consumption is obtained. In order to characterize and design the system, this is described in detail, namely the supercapacitors models, the battery, the power converters and the implemented strategy of control. According to the obtained results, a control strategy that allows an effective management of the stored energy in the system regarding the vehicle’s optimal functioning and increasing its autonomy is also presented and discussed. Based on experimental and simulation results, the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed solution are presented.