A Three-Phase Inductive Power Transfer System for Roadway-Powered Vehicles

TLDR

A new three‑phase bipolar inductive power transfer system for roadway‑powered vehicles is introduced. A prototype 13‑m track delivering 40 A/phase at 38.4 kHz was built, with flat pickups and finite‑element‑designed cable placement, and additional compensation was added to balance mutual‑coupling effects. The system achieved a much wider power‑delivery zone than single‑phase layouts, as experimentally confirmed.

Abstract

The development of a new three-phase bipolar inductive power transfer system that provides power across the entire width of a roadway surface for automatic guided vehicles and people mover systems is described. A prototype system was constructed to verify the feasibility of the design for a number of moving loads (toy cars). Here, 40 A/phase is supplied at 38.4 kHz to a 13-m-long test track. Flat pickups are used on the underside of each vehicle to couple power from the track to the vehicle. Finite element modeling software was used to design the geometrical position of the track cables and to predict the power output. This design resulted in a considerably wider power delivery zone than possible using a single-phase track layout and has been experimentally verified. Mutual coupling effects between the various track phases require additional compensation to be added to ensure balanced three-phase currents.