IIIT Hyderabad designs end-to-end charging solution for e-scooters
The International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT-H) has designed a unique end-to-end charging solution for e-scooters.
The Processes, Architecture and Technologies Research in IoT (PATRIoT) division of IIIT-H, headed by Dr Aftab Hussain, designed a complete end-to-end charging solution from the electronic hardware components that are sturdy and safe enough for outdoor deployments to the software that contains an appropriate processor to control all input and output devices of the system.
Dr Hussain and his team of researchers proposed the design and fabrication of charging equipment specifically for e-scooters in a paper titled ‘Compact Electric Vehicle Charging Station Using Open Charge Point Protocol for E-Scooters’, which has been presented at the 2021 International Conference on Sustainable Energy and Future Electric Transportation.
The team started working on the solution as the charging infrastructure for two-wheelers is yet to catch up. With residential housing societies yet to set up parking infrastructure with charging points, one needs to unplug the scooter battery, which is a tedious process and physically carry it home, charge it and reconnect it before the next ride. Repeating the tedious sequence of events is a dampener on the path to electric mobility.
To use the technology, much like the interface at an ATM, users have to swipe a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) card that authenticates them before she enters the amount for which charging has to be done. Safety features such as emergency disconnection of AC power supply in case it goes beyond a minimum threshold or in case of hardware faults have also been incorporated.
According to the lead author of the paper Deeksha Devendra, current EV charger designs are bulky, requiring land usage rights, whereas this device can be mounted on a street lamp. The USP of the system lies in the Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) that it is based on. With this, charging stations are no longer vendor-specific, Devendra told the media.
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