Recent international energy transition policies set increasingly challenging targets for reducing pollutant emissions for the transportation sector. However, electric private cars are not a sustainable solution because of their high consumption per person and km, and the inherent poor public space utilization and congestion issues. Consequently, improving local public transport is the best solution in the urban context especially when clean vehicles are considered. Particularly, multi-source electric propulsion system architectures with multiple energy sources are very promising for public transport vehicles. They rely on a combination of technologies among batteries, supercapacitors, hydrogen fuel-cells, diesel engines and catenary/wireless power supply which require managing the power flows among the energy sources properly. In this context, the research activity will regard the development of advanced energy management and control strategies for multi-source electric propulsion systems for public transport vehicles, with particular reference to artificial intelligence techniques. More in detail, these will be based on infomobility data collectable during the repetitive scheduled duties that characterize public transportation fleets, thus enabling a suitable data forecast and the employment of real-time optimisation-based energy management and control systems.

The research activity will mainly regard electrical engineering topics, more specifically, the modelling of electrical systems and components (power electronic converters, electrical machines, energy storage systems, etc.) and the design of energy management and control systems. A good knowledge of MATLAB/Simulink is required, and knowledge of some programming languages (e.g. Python, C) are also very advisable. Experience with real-time simulation platforms (e.g. Typhoon HIL, OPAL-RT) and artificial intelligence techniques represents a plus. All these skills can be refined appropriately during the PhD thanks to the attendance of specific training courses.

The research team consists of professors and researchers that have 20-year experience in design and control of power electronic converters, electrical machines and drives. The team has been working also on energy management and control systems of energy storage systems for more than 10 years, for both vehicular and power system applications. The research group does experimental research activity at the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, whose laboratories are equipped with several devices, instruments, and prototypes preparatory to the proposed research activity (electric drive test bench, multi-level converters, hybrid energy storage systems, real-time simulators, etc.).