Reliable Cooperative Charging Protocol against Fault Data for Supercapacitors Charging Systems

A cooperative charging protocol for the super-capacitors on catenary-free trams is a promising method to solve the high-power-charging load. The protocol can efficiently improve the dynamic performance of the charging system by reducing the imbalances and overshoots of currents when the transfer data is highly accurate. However, it is noting that some internal circuit failures and external attacks will cause fault data, which is inevitable in the charging system. The fault data may reduce or even break the reliability of the system under the cooperative charging protocol. In this paper, we investigate the causes of fault data and what effects it may bring to the system with cooperative charging protocol. To solve the problem, we propose a reliable cooperative charging protocol with a data screening mechanism added in the existing protocol to guarantee the charging system from fault data. In addition, we show that the reliable cooperative charging protocol enhances the reliability of the charging system with fault data. Both simulations and experiments are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed protocol.