Mg. León-Cifuentes, Ricardo

Electric forklifts are increasingly adopted in industrial environments due to their energy efficiency, reduced emissions, and lower operating noise compared to combustion alternatives. This paper presents a novel methodology for estimating the transported load weight in electric forklifts based on the output power signal of the DC–DC converter driving the electro-hydraulic lifting system. The proposed method leverages non-intrusive measurements of voltage and current to compute the lifting power, lifting speed, and energy, also allowing the computation of the lifting efficiency. The analysis confirmed that lifting energy is not linearly correlated with transported weight but lifting efficiency can be reasonably approximated as a function of lifting power and lifting speed, subsequently allowing the estimation of the transported mass. Experimental validation using 53 lifting events demonstrated that the methodology can estimate load weight with a reasonable mean absolute percentage error of 10.6% and 6.4% when using linear or multivariable regression analysis, respectively. These results demonstrate that the approach is sufficiently accurate for practical applications such as triggering load warnings when the estimated mass exceeds predefined safety thresholds.

Despite the accelerated adoption of the Electric Vehicle (EV) on a global scale, Chile reports a marginal adoption among non-commercial users of passenger cars (NCUPC), which can be attributed to the lack of subsidies to cover the upfront cost of EVs. This paper proposes and evaluates a strategy that integrates a Timeof-Use (TOU) tariff with Vehicle-to-Home (V2H) operation to promote EV adoption without requiring subsidies or significant investments in grid infrastructure. The study uses technical data to estimate residential electric consumption patterns, battery charging/discharging profiles, and operating conditions of V2H, considering different scenarios to calculate economic metrics using a differential cash flow. The annual traveled distance is used as a metric for comparative analysis, being captured for each scenario when the Internal Return Rate (IRR) equals the 7% discount rate that defines the economic balance. Results show that integrating TOU and V2H reduces the annual traveled distance required to get economic balance by up to 13% compared with the current scenario. Moreover, when considering plausible forecasts of gas and EV upfront cost, the annual traveled distance can be further reduced by up to 31.6% and 50%, respectively, making EVs economically viable for a broader range of current users of combustion vehicles.