A Review Paper on Regenerative Braking System

The most common form of regenerative brake technology re-purposes an electric motor as a generator, because of which regenerative brakes are often found in hybrid and electric vehicles. During normal operation, the electric motor draws power from the battery and uses it to move the vehicle. When the brake pedal is depressed, the electric motor is able to reverse this process, become a generator powered by the rotating wheels, and feed electricity back into the battery. Since regenerative brakes effectively charge the battery without plugging into a charger, in the case of an electric vehicle, or using the alternator in a hybrid, the overall efficiency of the vehicle is increased. That translates into more miles between charges or fuel-ups. Since, regenerative brakes effectively turn kinetic energy into electricity; they are able to slow a vehicle down in addition to charging the battery. However, there are limitations to the efficiency of a regenerative brake system. One of the main issues is that regenerative brakes don't work as well at low speeds as they do at high speeds. Due to that inherent limitation in regenerative braking, most vehicles are also equipped with a supplemental traditional braking system. In the same way that traditional steering, braking, and acceleration controls are often included as a backup for drive-by-wire systems, traditional brakes can serve as a backup for regenerative braking. Traditional systems may only kick in when there's an equipment failure, or they can be in used inconcert with regenerative braking all the time.