Two-wheeler demonstrator with micro-hybrid functionalities based on e-generator voltage regulation

Nowadays, all around the world, a typical theme treated is related to the pollutant reduction in the automotive field. Even more restrictions are applied to reduce environmental impact while improving air quality. Stricter regulations are developed, and manufacturers should find new solutions to satisfy the new requirements developing cleaner and more efficient technologies including hybrid or electric implementations. The car market is quite in advance with respect to the two-wheel sector, where alternative solutions to the traditional internal combustion engine are not common due to various factors, such us the available space on the motorcycle and the high costs. The thesis offers a new solution which consists in modifying an already available motorcycle into a hybrid one: usually a rectifier/regulator is adopted to convert the three-phase signals from the PMSM into a DC signal to charge the vehicle battery. When the battery is fully charged, the power will be dissipated. Substituting the rectifier with an inverter, the aim is to utilize the 12V lead-acid battery to provide power on the crankshaft. The text is organized as follow: in chapter 1 there will be the state of the art concerning hybrid system implemented on motorcycles and a brief introduction to the thesis project; in chapter 2 the hardware and software integration into the existing vehicle; in chapter 3 the Simulink model of the system; and in chapter 4 the tests performed on the prototype vehicle to evaluate the performance. Finally, the conclusion includes some comments related to the obtained results and possible hardware and software improvements.