New opportunity in ITS - transportation systems with wireless power transfer technology

In this industry application paper, we present the wireless power electric vehicle called On-Line Electric Vehicle (OLEV) developed at Korea Advanced Institute of Technology (KAIST). With the advanced wireless power transfer technology, the battery in the vehicle is charged remotely from the power transmitters embedded in the road. This road-way charging capability enables the vehicle to be charged while they are in motion and therefore the vehicle does not need to make frequent stops to charge the battery. In this paper, the wireless power transfer technology applied to the OLEV system is described. Also, the recent advances of the OLEV technology and commercialization processes are presented. Then the economical design method of the mass transportation system based on the OLEV technology is discussed. There is strong potential for further development of the OLEV system if the system effectively utilizes advanced information systems and real-time traffic data. This industry application oriented paper provides researchers and engineers with an opportunity to learn about the emerging transportation system, which could be further progressed with various methods developed in ITS.