The Buenos Aires Technological Institute (ITBA) is a plant of young geniuses. In 65 years of experience, its students have managed to carry out countless creations ranging from the launch of a satellite and the creation of a reusable rocket, to the development of an artificial pancreas; an artificial intelligence algorithm for diagnosing cancer and a robot for accompanying older adults, to name a few inventions.
Logically, mobility could not be exempt. In this area we can mention, among other developments, the bus without a steering wheel or driver that rides for free through the Innovation Park, in CABA.
Now, the ITBA once again took a new step in electromobility by presenting a wireless charger for electric vehiclesa solution that differs from everything known so far because it allows the battery to be recharged without the need for plugs or cables.
This alternative, tested in an electric karting developed a few years ago by students and teachers of the Institute, is characterized by using renewable energy obtained from solar panels.
This energy is transferred without cables to the vehicle through a magnetic field, using a technology called Resonant Inductive Power Transfer (RIPT). The energy is captured by the charger on board the vehicle, which manages the replenishment of the karting batteries.
When the karting stops on the transmitter platform it begins to receive wireless charging.
“The idea of the project is to show an alternative to one of the biggest difficulties that can be seen today in electric vehicles, which has to do with the way and times of recharging a battery,” he explains to Clarion Nicolás Magliola, electronic engineer at ITBA, teacher and researcher in charge of the project.
During the recharging process, it is not necessary for the driver to get out of the vehicle. Magliola also details that the adaptations that were made to karting were not that many. “Before it was charged with cables, like any other electric vehicle, now it has a wireless power receiver.”
-Is the (inductive) charging system similar to that of the wireless cell phone chargers that are already seen in many cars?
-It is the same concept, but with greater technical difficulties, because we are talking about multiplying the power by a thousand. Inductive charging – using magnetic fields – is safe for people, quite clean for the environment and has an efficient transfer (93% in this case).
-And what is the loading station or platform?
-As we said, the car has a coil that receives, while the transmitter is embedded in the street, which is an advantage because this type of load would not suffer vandalism problems nor would it alter the landscape. To be clearer, this could be installed on a street just before the pedestrian lane, allowing the vehicle to charge while stopped at a traffic light.
About 15 students from different engineering careers participate in the project. Magliola highlights that “the project was not just a sample, but it is working. And in that sense we are pioneers in the region. The work teams began to form two years ago”
Those in charge of the development, operation and maintenance of this masterpiece are 15 students second, third and fifth years of different engineering careers (mechanical, electronic and industrial), divided by teams and supervised by Magliola.
-How long does it take to load the karting?
The first thing to clarify is that it is a paradigm shift, because it breaks the previously known concept of stopping to load. And since the vehicle charges while in use it doesn’t require a ton of battery; That is, the system allows you to reduce the amount of battery needed. In this case, for every second that the vehicle is stopped on the loading platform, it obtains 100 meters of autonomy. One minute of charging is six kilometers.
The next step is to adapt the coil into an electric skateboard so that the students can move from one building to the other within the property. -In addition to solar panels, could the system work with other energy sources?
-Exact. This project is conceptual and fully adaptable. You could have a load that is with part of the electrical grid, solar panels and windmills, depending on where the station was to be installed.
-What is the next step of this project?
-We are currently adapting the coil we use for karting into an electric skateboard. The plan is that tomorrow we can use it to move between the Institute’s headquarters. While later we will try to implement it in an electric street car, such as a TITO.
-The ITBA also worked on the autonomous bus project that circulates through the Innovation Park, do you see it possible for it to be powered by this charging system?
-Yes, there are intentions to do so. We have already held meetings with the Innovation Park and with Navya – the company that developed the autonomous bus – and there is interest from all three sides. In this case, I imagine that the vehicle would only realize when it needs charging and would stop for the necessary time at each stop (the charging station would be there) so that the autonomy was infinite.
