This paper presents a smart electric scooter system consisting of a microprocessor based vehicle controller (integrating an embedded regenerative braking controller), a 300W Permanent Magnet (PM) DC motor, two low-power DC-DC converters to form a higher power DC-DC converter pack, a motor controller, a supercapacitor bank and a capacitor cell balancing sub-system.
During acceleration or forward motoring mode, the vehicle controller sets the DC motor into motoring mode to further utilizing motor controller regulate wheel speed and acceleration torque, whereas during deceleration or forward braking mode, sets the DC motor into braking mode and further utilizing regenerative braking controller regulate wheel speed and braking torque, as well as functions as a constant current (whose reference value is adjustable via a potentiometer) generator to charge the supercapacitor bank in a controllable fashion, hence not only successfully replacing frictional braking to certain degree, but also increasing the total energy efficiency dramatically owing to the low internal resistance and larger capacitance of the supercapacitor compared with other conventional regenerative braking systems via batteries.
General structure of the smart system, control principle of the controllers, realization of measurement platform, experimental test setup as well as validation with results are all presented within this paper.