Goal and Purpose

The objective of this master thesis is to understand the fundamentals of infrastructure needed for developing the next generation charger systems for Vehicle-to-X (V2X) applications, with a focus on hardware design.

The master students shall focus on building up a repository of information regarding chargers, charging systems, suitable collectors and other factors necessary to enable a future deployment of a V2X charging system. The students shall develop a concept and design for the components included in such an infrastructure, and the possible use cases for the product in the market. Industry areas such as marine, mining, forestry or others could be used as potential cases for development.

The master students shall also collaborate on a daily/weekly basis to the parallel team working with concept development for software systems. Teamwork and result-sharing are necessary to ensure that the full project scope is addressed together, both from the hardware and software perspective.

The market deployment of developed product(s) has a large dependence on economic factors. Hence, there is a need to evaluate the economic feasibility together with concept development of the hardware systems.

Questions to address

1. What are the fundamental hardware design characteristics that are necessary for a next generation V2X charging system? What are the limiting factors in such applications?   
2. What are the major components needed from the point of view of the vehicle? 
3. What are the major components needed from the point of view of X (application area)?
4. How do economic factors influence the developed design? What price category and market segment(s) does the product fall into?
5. Is the developed design modular and scalable?
6. How should it look and be user friendly for selected applications?

Who are we looking for

Two master students that will be working in close collaboration with two other master students within software development. .

• Master student in Innovation and Design / Product development / Energy systems.
• Passion for Product development and collaboration.
• Fluent in English and/or Swedish.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to work in a team.
• Hybrid or full-time work at Knightec office in Västerås.

The thesis project can be published and used in personal portfolio as well as company marketing.

Supervisory

Knightec – Project lead and main supervisor
B&R Industrial Automation – Technical reference and support