A investigation of braking system actuators for electric shuttle bus

An electric bus is an environmentally friendly mass transportation. Commonly an electric bus uses standard air braking system with pneumatic cylinder for the main actuator. Nevertheless, this will consume the space allocation, greater weight as well as higher energy conversion loss. This study focuses on how to implement an electric braking system for electric bus application in order to overcome the problems above. There are steps to achieve the goal. A preliminary observation is conducted for an electric shuttle bus in Universitas Indonesia to obtain the pattern of braking system during period of journey. This data is then utilized to compare the energy consumption for this application. The result shows that electric actuator for braking system is a potential alternative prime mover for a braking system in a vehicle particularly in an electric bus. Substituting the conventional braking system actuator into the proposed one saves 2030 kWs energy, decreases weight into 90% from its conventional system and cuts 700080 cm3 space in the bus design. Therefore, the optimum component to be selected is the aim for the next work.