Abstract
The paper deals with a power charger capable of quick simultaneous charging of several unevenly discharged batteries. The charger is designed for use in conjunction with a recently developed power-assist wheelchair composed of two armrest modules associated with wheels—each with its own motor, driver and battery. Uneven discharge of the batteries is very possible in this application. Taking into account the charging power and energy comparable with the most powerful household electrical devices, the refreshing of these batteries and integration of the entire power supply chain into the household grid become a topical and challenging task. Solving of this task requires a special charger that has several channels and can unevenly apply charging power to these channels. At the same time, the charger must not generate current harmonics or reactive power, must operate with good efficiency and satisfy size constraints. In the given research, a configuration of several interleaved isolated single-ended primary-inductor converters is studied. The synthesized mathematical model of the proposed charger provides data about its static and dynamic characteristics while its experimental investigation focuses on operation details (power losses, control features etc.). The obtained results prove that the proposed concept complies with the above-mentioned requirements and can be applied in the discussed application.
Highlights
Sustainable and efficient energy supply is important to larger and smaller objects: Energy consumers or energy prosumers
In the example, corresponding to the considered wheelchair application, The complete AC-supplied system requires a power factor correction (PFC) stage to improve the single-ended primary-inductor converter (SEPIC) cells have two secondary windings, which are connected to two batteries
Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) sequences with constant duty cycle γ, each them shifted by angle φ = 2πk/N, wherewith the proposed for the modular converter is based onofforming sequences k isduty cell number
Summary
Sustainable and efficient energy supply is important to larger and smaller objects: Energy consumers or energy prosumers. An example of such an application of significant social importance, an energy supply system for a power-assist wheelchair, is discussed. Nowadays, advanced power electronic converters are widely used as functional tools to form a sustainable and efficient energy supply. According to a report of the World Health Organization (WHO) one third of a billion elderly and disabled persons have mobility problems [1] Many of these persons are highly motivated to improve their mobility combining electrical powering of their wheelchairs with muscle powering ensuring their own maximal feasible participation in daily life (i.e., assuming the use of power-assist wheelchairs). This research outlines the problems and challenges of the development of an energy supply of electrical subsystem for cost-effective power-assist wheelchairs. The power electronic converter operating as a specific battery charger is proposed and verified experimentally
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