Experimental Verification of Wireless In-Wheel Motor Using Magnetic Resonance Coupling

Electric Vehicles (EVs) are used widely because of their environmental benefits. Above all, the in-wheel motor system has excellent performance with regards to motion control [1] [2]. On the other hand, the power lines and signal lines of the in-wheel motor system are exposed to the external environment. In addition, the power and signal lines might become disconnected between the car chassis and the in-wheel motor because of vibrations from the harsh load. In order to overcome this problem, the Wireless In-Wheel Motor (W-IWM) has been proposed by the authors [3]. Recently many papers about Wireless Power Transfer applied to vehicles have been published [4-9]. The Wireless In-Wheel Motor system is a vehicle drive system that takes advantage of the power wirelessly transferred to the load, thus nullifying the issue of disconnection of power lines and signal lines. The authors have developed this Wireless In-Wheel Motor system and evaluated it by experimental test.