Power electronics for electric vehicles: A student laboratory platform

This paper presents a laboratory platform used in a problem solving and design course for first year engineering master students at the KU Leuven. The platform implements three power electronic systems that are found in electric vehicles: a field oriented controlled motor drive capable of regenerative braking, a bidirectional DC-DC converter and a battery charger. The battery charger is implemented as a bidirectional single phase grid-tied inverter that enables vehicle-to-grid support. Students learn to understand the hardware and control systems in simulation models. Afterwards they can test their models on real hardware through a rapid prototyping platform. The platform has a motor test bench to emulate driving conditions and regenerative braking. Measurable grid voltage deviations are observed while using the grid-tied inverter, demonstrating the impact of electric vehicles on the residential distribution grid.