Improved Test Equipment for Low Cost Automated Battery Ageing and Characterization

The increasing interest in using batteries as energy storage systems has pushed the relevance of the research in this field. One of the main fields of interest in battery research is their modeling, which is an ongoing topic due to the physical complexity of electrochemical interactions. From an electrical point of view, it is vital to test and model the reduction of battery capacity due to ageing and thermal stress. For this reason, a low-cost battery testing system capable of both capacity measurement and ageing control is necessary. To the scope, this paper proposes an automated system devoted to controlling and measuring voltage, current, and temperature during the battery ageing process. This system represents an enhancement of a previously proposed system, addressing and fixing main issues that arose during operation. Moreover, a comprehensive system characterization is done to evaluate the uncertainty of the measurement system. Thanks to its new characteristics, the proposed setup is ready to be implemented for battery modeling and the identification of ageing mechanisms.