To Örebro University

We present the field tests and measurements performed on a novel current collector manipulator to be mounted beneath a heavy vehicle to collect electric power from road embedded power lines. We describe the concept of the Electric Road System (ERS) test track being used and give an overview of the test vehicle for testing the current collection. The emphasis is on the field tests and measurements to evaluate both the vertical accelerations that the manipulator’s end-effector is subject to during operation and the performance of the detection and tracking of the power line.

We present the adopted motion control schemes of a novel current collector manipulator to be mounted beneath a heavy hybrid electric vehicle to collect electric power from road embedded power lines. We describe our approach of power line detection and tracking based on an array of inductive proximity sensors. The emphasis is on the adopted motion control logic for sequential and closed loop motions to detect and track the power line respectively. We implement the sliding mode control approach for the closed loop control scheme as straightforward solution given the binary nature of the inductive proximity sensors being used. The overall architecture of the entire motion control system is presented. Finally, the implementation of the entire control logic in a form of a state machine is discussed.

This paper presents a prototype of a novel current collector manipulator that can be mounted beneath a road vehicle between the front and rear wheels to collect electric power from road embedded power lines. The ground-level power supply concept for road vehicles is described and the kinematic model of this two degree of freedom manipulator is detailed. Finally, the power line detection, based on an array of inductive sensors, is discussed.

We present a prototype of a novel current collector manipulator to be be mounted beneath a heavy vehicle to collect electric power from road-embedded power lines. We describe the concept of the ground-level power supply system for heavy vehicles and its main components. The main requirements and constraints, such as safety, robustness to harsh road and weather operational conditions, ambient environment aspects and dynamic properties, are introduced. The emphasis is on the developed kinematic model, which provides the base for further development of the control system. We propose and derive an alternative approach for representing the inverse kinematics by a two-dimensional polynomial approximation that avoids the usage of complicated non-linear equations. Its simplicity is demonstrated by a numerical example with the basic parameters of the prototype. The basic motion sequences of the current collector and the way to control them are outlined.