PRESENT-DAY PATENT- A PREVIEW

Electric Vehicles (EVs) have become more popular nowadays, as people are willing to switch over to an emission-free and cost-efficient mode of transport. However, charging the EVs through traditional plug-in charging stations impose heavy installation and maintenance costs, along with electrical safety issues. Hence, wireless charging by means of charging pads have acquired great interest. All that has to be done in wireless EV charging is to let the EV stand over the charging pad that generates electromagnetic field. This electromagnetic field is then received and converted to electric power by a receiver pad at the bottom of EV. Though wireless charging is flexible to use, energy losses during power transfer needs careful consideration. So, how EVs can be wirelessly charged without energy losses? What if the road is itself electrified with renewable power to act as a charging pad for the EVs to render incessant energy supply? This is what a recent invention has investigated at. As per the invention, the roads are electrified using solar panels, being controlled by smart metering devices. The solar-based Direct Current (DC) voltage from the electrified roads is then converted to Alternating Current (AC) output using a power converter. Subsequently, the AC power is inductively coupled to the receiver pad at the bottom of EV that renders electric power for EV charging. A central management system keeps track of the amount of power being produced and consumed to ensure energy for all the EVs driven on the electrified road.  Additionally, the invention incorporates a solar charge controller for optimizing the solar supply and a battery storage for storing the surplus energy. Actually, the invention supports automatic wireless charging of EVs, while driving on the electrified road itself. For this to happen, initially, the driver is recognized using a face recognition system to let his EV enter the road. On entering the road, the EV starts charging and the receiving sensor in EV estimates the amount of power being charged. An automatic bill is then generated and shared to the driver. However, installing such a wireless charging road is too expensive that similar inventions with cost efficient and even more practical form of EV charging is expected in future.  

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