Abstract
The electric powered wheelchair (EPW) is an essential assistive tool for people with serious injuries or disability. This manuscript describes the validation of applied research for reducing the charging time of an electric wheelchair using a hybrid electric system (HES) composed of a supercapacitor (SC) bank and a lithium-ion battery with a fuzzy logic controller (FLC)-based fast charging system for Li-ion batteries and a fuzzy logic-based intelligent energy management system (FLIEMS) for controlling the power flow within the HES. The fast charging FLC was designed to drive the voltage difference (Vd) among the different cells of a multi-cell battery and the cell voltage (Vc) of an individual cell. These parameters (voltage difference and cell voltage) were used as input voltages to reduce the charge time and activate a bypass equalization (BPE) scheme. BPE was introduced in this paper so that the battery operates within the safe voltage range. For SC/Li-ion HES, the FLIEMS presented in this paper controls the bi-directional power flow to smooth the power extracted from Li-ion batteries. Moreover, a dual active bridge isolated bidirectional DC converter (DAB-IBDC) was used for power conversion. The DAB-IBDC presented in this paper has the characteristics of galvanic isolation, and high power conversion efficiency compared to the conventional converter circuits due to the reduced reverse power flow and current stresses.
Highlights
Electric powered wheelchairs (EPW) are quite popular among differently disabled people.Reducing the charging time to as low as possible has been a long desire and recent research emphasis.The prevailing energy source used for electric powered wheelchair (EPW) is the lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery
Once the battery is discharged and the battery voltage drops below a safe limit, the EPW cannot move, which prevents differently disabled people from moving freely and performing their daily
Special charging circuits are required for voltage balancing to alleviate this limitation [2,3]. To overcome these limitations of conventional batteries system for EPW, this paper introduces an approach using supercapacitors (SCs) in parallel with Li-ion batteries
Summary
Electric powered wheelchairs (EPW) are quite popular among differently disabled people.Reducing the charging time to as low as possible has been a long desire and recent research emphasis.The prevailing energy source used for EPW is the lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery. Electric powered wheelchairs (EPW) are quite popular among differently disabled people. Reducing the charging time to as low as possible has been a long desire and recent research emphasis. The prevailing energy source used for EPW is the lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery. Li-ion batteries are flexible, require less maintenance, offer higher energy density 165 Wh/kg), and have a low self-discharge rate (approximately 5% per month) [1]. Li-ion batteries have a low power density and slow charging rates (taking several hours for charging). Once the battery is discharged and the battery voltage drops below a safe limit, the EPW cannot move, which prevents differently disabled people from moving freely and performing their daily
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
