Potential for improving operational efficiency of robotic systems utilizing cost effective core-less wireless charging systems

Abstract

Abstract. Industrial Service Hybrid robots (ISH) are becoming increasingly popular and are finding many applications in both domestic and semi industrial areas. One important example is the use of robots within storage facilities attending to the mundane tasks of product movement, placement and retrieval at both large and small warehouse facilities. Of particular interest is the downtime of the robot when undergoing a recharge cycle. The time consumed during charging varies according to the battery type and this time may be categorized as being both non-productive and inconvenient especially to small storage facilities, where a minimal amount of robots have been purchased to perform the tasks. Therefore, there is a need for total autonomy of the ISHs and the proposed solution is wireless power transfer (WPT) that can render the charging of mobile robots autonomous by removing the requirement for downtime for charging. In this research, a complete WPT charging system has been developed for dynamic recharging of mobile robotic platforms. The system includes primary power conversion, magnetic coupling methodology, transmitter and receiver overview and describes a new lowcost coreless transmitter technology, which is easily installed and more suitable for the smaller business owner, yet also capable of operation in bulk storage locations. The design of this WPT charging system is presented as a fully controlled and dynamic solution for mobile robots. Within the paper, analytical and experimental results are presented.