Hybrid fuel cell powertrain for a powered wheelchair driven by rim motors

Abstract

This paper proposes a hybrid fuel cell powertrain for a powered wheelchair driven by rim motors. Since this innovative wheelchair claims to be light, foldable, and fuel efficient, it would be more promising to have a fuel cell powertrain that is self-charged, extractable, and small in size and weight. The proposed hybrid fuel cell powertrain combines a fuel cell and two secondary battery packs with enough power but minimal in size and weight for the wheelchair. The fuel cell unit is responsible only for charging one of the battery packs, while the other battery by turns supplies power to load. This energy management strategy improves the power fluctuation of the fuel cell as well as reduces the charge frequency of the secondary battery. The effectiveness of the proposed powertrain is evaluated and compared with a traditional hybrid fuel cell powertrain with simulations and experiments, which prove that the output power of the fuel cell is nearly constant and the number of charges is reduced by 98%.