No More Flat Batteries

Everyday countless commuters in a rush home or to the office are forced to find a friend with jumper cables, call a tow-truck, or walk, wasting innumerable hours grumbling and complaining in misery, all because of car batteries that went flat without warning. Now scientists from Energy Systems Technology and Power Mechatronics have developed an early warning system to prevent this from ever happening again. The new system for managing lead-acid batteries is different from previous systems because, “for the first time it is possible to predict whether a new start will be possible before the motor is turned off -- and without the need to adjust difficult-to-determine parameters such as the diffusion capacity of the battery,” says project lead Dr. Constantinos Sourkounis. Unlike its predecessors, this battery management system doesn’t need to be reset every time the car’s battery is replaced, and it isn’t guessing when it says a new battery is needed; it knows.