System Design of Dynamic Wireless Power Transfer for Automated Highways

Dynamic wireless power transfer (DWPT) has been proposed as a solution to power electric vehicles (EVs)on future electrified highways. However, there has been little consideration of how the coordination of electric connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) could impact DWPT system designs in future scenarios. In this paper, a DWPT system design is optimized for a future highway where CAVs travel in coordinated groups, with each CAV in the group powered by the same DWPT section. As the distribution of smaller light-duty vehicles (LDVs) and larger heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) in each group is varied, the DWPT system power level, transmitter length, and the equivalent receiver loads are adjusted to minimize the infrastructure requirements and energy losses of the DWPT system. The outputs from this analysis are used to determine the optimal groupings of vehicles for a given DWPT system. The analysis suggests that CAV coordination could aid the deployment of DWPT systems and reduce the overall infrastructure and energy losses of DWPT systems.