Review and Evaluation of Communication Systems for Control of Stationary Electric-Vehicle Inductive Charging Systems

High-efficiency wireless power transfer can be achieved using inductive charging with closed-loop dual-side control. Such charging systems rely on robust and low-latency communication between the vehicle and the charging system to provide periodic measurements of power transfer variables, which the controller utilizes to optimize power transfer efficiency. Relevant technical standards such as the SAE J2954, J2836/6, J2847/6, J2931/6, and ISO 15118 are surveyed regarding the communications aspect of inductive charging systems. Experimental results performed based on a communications testbed are presented, analyzing signal attenuation caused by vehicle shielding and the performance of an SAE J2954 compliant communication scheme under background congestion traffic.