Sensorless control of the charging process of a dynamic inductive power transfer system with interleaved nine-phase boost converter

The paper proposes a technique for the control of the charging process in a dynamic inductive power transfer system for automotive applications. This technique is based on an impedance control loop on the receiver side. The proposed control allows to carry out the different phases of the charging process in absence of a communication link between ground and vehicle side. The charging process starts with a sensorless procedure for the identification of the actual presence of the vehicle over the receiver. The same control technique introduces several advantages in terms of interoperability between systems having different requirements in terms of power demand. A 11 kW prototype has been implemented based on a transmitter 1.5 meters long as compromise solution between the long track coil and the lumped one. The power management of the receiver side is provided by a nine-phase interleaved boost converter. The experimental results prove the effectiveness of the proposed control together with a good matching with the developed theoretical equations set for the system description.