Scientific Laboratory Platform for Testing the Electric Vehicle Equipped with DC Drive

The authors present a test platform for the low-power DC electric motor of a traction vehicle or a high-power motor scaled in the traction and braking modes. The load emulator of the traction drive is made using an induction motor controlled by a frequency converter. A microcontroller controls the bi-directional DC/DC converter and sends a speed reference signal to the frequency converter. The test bench is meant for determination of the power consumption by motor in various speed cycles, and will be used to demonstrate the operation of electric vehicle to students and to investigate the charging/discharging strategies of energy sources.