Hiroshi Fujimoto

Title: Advanced control of electric vehicles and development of wireless in-wheel motors

Abstract: Electric vehicles (EVs) have attractive potential not only for energy and environmental performance, but also for vehicle motion control because electric motors have a fast and measurable torque response. The speaker’s lab has developed a completely original EV with active front and rear steering systems. We installed high-torque, direct-drive in-wheel motors and lateral force sensors on all wheels.

The first part of this talk will briefly introduce our recent studies on advanced motion control and autonomous driving to improve safety, driving comfort, and energy efficiency. In the second part, a new type of in-wheel motor will be introduced that receives electric power by wireless power transfer using magnetic resonance coupling and control signals by wireless communication to avoid disconnection of power and signal cables. This system is called Wireless In-Wheel Motor (W-IWM). In this system, it is also possible to transmit power directly to the in-wheel motor without cables from underground coils for dynamic charging to extend the driving range. This presentation provides an overview and design methods of the W-IWM. We also evaluate the characteristics of the W-IWM when installed in an electric vehicle and demonstrate its effectiveness through driving tests.

Biography: Hiroshi Fujimoto (IEEE Fellow) received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the Department of Electrical Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, in 2001. In 2001, he joined the Department of Electrical Engineering, Nagaoka University of Technology, Niigata, Japan, as a Research Associate. From 2002 to 2003, he was a Visiting Scholar with the School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA. In 2004, he joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Yokohama National University, as a Lecturer and became an Associate Professor in 2005. He joined the Department of Electrical Engineering, The University of Tokyo in 2010, as an Associate Professor, and became a Professor in 2021.

Dr. Fujimoto was the recipient of the Best Paper Awards from the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics in 2001 and 2013, Isao Takahashi Power Electronics Award in 2010, Best Author Prize of SICE in 2010, the Nagamori Grand Award in 2016, and First Prize Paper Award from the IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics in 2016.

He has been an AdCom member at large from 2015 to 2023 in IES. He also serves journal editor in IES such as the associate editor of Industrial Electronics Magazine from 2006 and Technical Editor of IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics (TMECH) from 2010 to 2014. He has been a management committee member of TMECH as a representative of IES from 2017 to 2021 and is currently a Senior Editor of TMECH from 2023. He served as a general chair of IEEE/IES International Conference on Mechatronics (ICM’21), Program Co-chair of AMC’20, ICM’19, ICM’23, AIM’10, AIM’19, AIM’23, AIM’24, Conference Editorial Board Chair of AIM’17-’19