Design and Hardware Implementation of Dynamic Coil Alignment in Static Wireless EV Charging

Electric vehicles (EVs) are seen as a solution in solving carbon emissions and alleviating global climate issues. Increased demand for EVs necessitates the improvement of charging infrastructure. Static wireless charging, which utilizes inductive power transfer, offers one of the promising alternatives for traditional plug-in systems in parking lots, malls, and airports where the cars sit for long periods of time. However, a major challenge in static wireless charging is misalignment between transmitter and receiver coils, which drastically diminishes the power transfer efficiency and prevents effective battery charging. In most of the existing solutions, a complex multi-coil arrangement and even additional sensor arrays have to be used to correct this problem, which raises both costs and system complexity. On the other hand, the paper presents a mechanism of dynamic coil alignment that smooths the alignment process. Our design uses magnetic sensors, a PIC16F877A microcontroller, and motorized coil adjustments on lateral axes front-back and left-right for perfect alignment. The system is tested both in simulation using Proteus and on hardware for proof of concept. It is possible to reduce system complexity while maintaining efficiency; hence the proposed solution would be cheap and practically effective in the improvement of the EV wireless charging infrastructure.