On November 12, the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) presents this year’s 100-list IVA’s featuring research projects believed to have the potential to be developed into innovations, to promote business development or to provide other benefits. The list includes three research projects from the Department of Electrical Engineering.
This year’s list focuses on innovation through interdisciplinary approaches and addresses topics such as society and welfare, infrastructure, deep tech, smart industry, circular economy, resource and energy efficiency, green and blue industries, as well as new business models.
From Chalmers, there were a total of 18 research projects this year. Read about all of them in the article: Chalmers research with potential for utilization!
Read more about the research projects from the Department of Electrical Engineering below.
SmartBrain - Batterier med dynamisk omkonfigurering
Researcher: Albert Skegro, Quan Ouyang, Changfu Zou, Torsten Wik
"In our project, we’re pioneering a new way to make batteries smarter, longer-lasting, and more efficient through Dynamically Reconfigurable Battery Systems (DRBS). DRBS addresses common battery issues like uneven cell wear, limited flexibility, and wasted energy.
Our system can change internal battery connections on the go, adjusting for each cell’s health and workload. This adaptability means batteries last longer, perform better, and can be reused for renewable energy storage once they outlive their original use.
As electrification expands in transportation and renewables, DRBS supports the global need for sustainable energy storage by reducing waste, lowering environmental impact, and promoting a circular economy where fewer new batteries are needed, and existing ones are used longer and more efficiently.
We’ve developed advanced models and are building a prototype in our battery lab, moving DRBS closer to real-world applications."
AI and smart sensors for advanced battery management
Researcher: Changfu Zou, Yizhou Zhang, Xiaolei Bian, Torsten Wik
"As a key technology for electromobility and renewable energy storage, batteries remain costly and face risks of thermal runaway and premature degradation.
To tackle these critical challenges, this project develops advanced battery management algorithms by leveraging interdisciplinary knowledge, novel sensors, big data, and artificial intelligence. Validated on commercial batteries and vehicle fleet data, our algorithms accurately monitor critical battery states and predict their lifetime under diverse conditions.
Additionally, we have designed adaptive feedback control strategies for health-aware, faster charging and have demonstrated significant improvements on laboratory batteries. The plan is to translate and adapt these smart charging strategies to commercial batteries.
Our innovations hold high potential to make batteries safer, more affordable, and sustainable, thereby significantly accelerating the clean energy transition."
aktor-e: 1-Click Energy Optimization for Factories
Researcher: Constantin Cronrath, Sabino Roselli, Bente Bosman, Zackarias Gillberg, Mattias Hovgard
“aktor-e aims to equip manufacturing factories with a one-click energy optimization mode. In prior research, we have shown that intelligent control can run manufacturing machines up to 30% more energy-efficiently. Current developments allow us to evolve legacy machine controllers into intelligent and connected edge devices. aktor-e thus ventures into developing highly scalable and fault-tolerant software solutions that intelligently optimize energy-efficiency and hardware longevity while ensuring the best productivity of the factory—all at the click of a button.
While parts of our technology have been successfully validated in operational manufacturing systems, we are yet to demonstrate the scale-up needed to achieve commercial viability and environmental impact. We are thus looking to connect with industry partners, domain experts, and business leaders that can feed into turning aktor-e’s vision into an off-the-shelf product.”