Energy for electrically driven vehicles is usually stored in electrical energy storage devices, such as batteries or the like. The batteries need to be recharged regularly to ensure full operation of the electric vehicle. Privately used vehicles, such as cars, are usually operated to drive along a route once and their availability is restored after a sufficient time for recharging.
In contrast, vehicles for public transportation have a much longer operation time. Usually, the electrical energy stored in these vehicles does not provide sufficient capacity to operate public transportation vehicles, such as buses, over the entire operation time. Recharging stops, however, are not acceptable as the public transportation vehicle is filled with people to be commuted according to a bus schedule.
In order to keep the electrical energy storage device of such a vehicle as charged as possible, the brief bus stops for loading or unloading passengers can be used for connection to an electric power source in order to, at least partially, recharge the electrical energy storage device.
For electric buses, solutions found today are based on contacts through one or more divided pantographs or an arrangement of multiple pantographs on the roof of the vehicle or a division of a connecting bar on the wayside.
Furthermore, it would be inconvenient if the driver of the vehicle needed to manually establish a power connection each time the public transportation vehicle stops.
From document WO 2011/079 215 A2 a charging station for electric vehicles is known having connector braces to connect to contact plates or bars on the vehicle. The connector braces may have guiding strips with electrically conductive surfaces which converge such that the convergence is directed toward the electrically conductive surfaces. The alignment of the connector braces to the contact plates or bars on the vehicle is performed when the vehicle enters the charging station, so that the contact plates or bars move into the connector brace which is then aligned by means of the guiding strips.
Document WO 2011/064 596 A2 discloses an electric vehicle charging station having two pantographs arranged along the longitudinal axis of the vehicle to contact to power line bars when the vehicle is in position for recharging.
Document FR 2 802 069 discloses a charging station for an electric vehicle, such as a public bus, wherein an electrical connector to receive electrical power is arranged on the bus. The electrical connector is adapted to contact a corresponding connector on the charging station when the vehicle is in a position to connect the electrical connectors. However, this arrangement requires a relative positioning of the vehicle to the corresponding electrical connector on the charging station, which has to be assured by the driver of the vehicle by stopping the vehicle at a predefined position.
WO 2012/118422 A1 discloses an electrically powered bus with an arm on the rooftop. The pivotal arm is connected pivotable with a collector shoe at the end, which is in contact with the conductor line of a charging station during charging. The conductor line has positioning stops to guide by physical contact the collector shoe to the conductor line. The movement of the arm is a movement on a spherical surface.
US 2012111682A1 discloses a wayside mast with an electrically-supplying arm for charging a bus. The arm has a movable part, which permits to be displaced by pivoting upward if the current collector of the bus gets into physical contact with the movable part. The pivoting movement may be assisted by a motor which can be remote-controlled by a control device.
Hence, there is a need for a fully automatic connecting system for connecting an electrically driven vehicle to a charging station, wherein no active involvement of a driver or any mechanical guidance is required. Furthermore, the requirements for a stop on an exact stop position of the electrically driven vehicle should be low in order to keep the driver's focus on traffic events and the loading and unloading of passengers.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved connecting system for establishing an electrical connection with an electrically driven vehicle at a charging station. Furthermore, it is an object of the present invention to ensure that the charging time at each stop of the electrically driven vehicle at a charging station is maximized by providing a quick connection and disconnection.