This Master thesis aims at studying the technology of In-Motion Charging (IMC) trolleybuses. These trolleybuses are equipped with an on-board battery large enough to provide energy for certain parts of the route. Thanks to that, the parts of the line do not have to be covered with overhead lines. As the vehicles charge their batteries en route, the IMC trolleybuses do not have to stop for depot charging which gives them advantage over regular e-buses.

Main task of this thesis is to develop and study a new charging scheme for IMC trolleybuses called the Valley-Charging. While conventional methods can only use two predefined charging powers, Valley-Charging allows changing the charging power over time based on the conditions on the trolley-grid. To evaluate the suitability to charge, methods of evaluating the state of the trolley-grid, such as traffic or power capacity of substations were developed into an estimator suggesting the appropriate charging power. The estimator is a set of conditions and constraints which use data that are available on-board of the trolleybus en route without any way of communication with other vehicles or infrastructure, such as bus voltage, bus current or bus position.

Multiple version of the estimator were developed and analysed for problematic circumstances. New conditions were added after that to make the estimator more complex. The Valley-Charging method supported by the estimator was implemented to 9 new IMC trolleybuses added to the Arnhem trolleygrid. Simulations with the latest version of the estimator showed that the new vehicles manage to service the line as it can collect enough energy under the overhead lines to successfully make the round trips. The results of the Valley-Charging scheme were compared with conventional charging schemes currently used. The Valley-Charging was found superior to the conventional methods in terms of energy collected or severity of technical limit violations.