System architecture and mathematical model of public transportation system utilizing wireless charging electric vehicles

In this paper the recent progress of the wireless charging electric transportation system developed at Korea Advanced Institute of Technology (KAIST) called On-Line Electric Vehicle (OLEV) is introduced. The system architecture and mathematical model describing the cost issue of the OLEV based public transportation system are presented. The OLEV is the vehicle and road integrated transportation system. The vehicle operates with an electric motor and battery. However, unlike conventional electric vehicles, the battery in the OLEV is charged remotely from the power transmitters installed in the road. The innovative wireless power transfer mechanism equipped in the OLEV system enables the vehicle to be charged while it is moving. Therefore, the long re-charging vehicle down time, which is the major problem of the conventional electric vehicle, is eliminated. The first commercial version of OLEV was deployed at the Seoul Grand Park. Moreover, activities to apply the OLEV technology to the public mass transportation system are being progressed. In this paper, we conceptually illustrate the design architecture of the wireless power transportation system. Also we discuss the economical design issue for applying the OLEV to the mass transportation system. In particular, with the mathematical model, we explain the cost trade off between the battery size and the power transmission allocation in the road for the OLEV based transportation system.