Dynamic Vehicle Mass Estimation of Articulated Battery Trolleybuses for Integration in a Smart Trolley Grid

Battery trolleybuses shall be integrated into an existing trolleybus grid that cannot be sufficiently expanded for reasons of monument protection and economic efficiency. To ensure that the overhead grid is not overloaded at any point, charging must be managed smartly. In order to prevent buses and passengers from being stranded, a precise consumption forecast is required to decide which buses need to be prioritized. Since the consumption of the vehicle increases by nearly 30% as the number of passengers and thus the vehicle mass increases, this is an important influencing factor that needs to be determined. A vehicle mass estimation approach based on real-world data using available CAN bus data and the longitudinal vehicle dynamics equation is presented in this paper.