Robot Battery Swap Station for Continuous Mobile Operation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Mobile robots are limited by their battery capacity, leading to continuous downtime and increased costs due to the need for additional robots and extended charging times.
Innovation Solution
A charging station with a mounting module for detachably coupling and separating battery packs from mobile robots, a charging module for powering the battery packs, and a change module for transporting the battery packs to the charging module, allowing for quick and efficient battery swapping and charging.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Duration of action of moving object
If the mobile robot uses a battery with limited capacity, then the robot can operate for a certain period, but the robot cannot be used continuously and requires downtime for recharging
Solution Approach 1:
The battery system is segmented into multiple interchangeable battery packs. Instead of relying on a single large-capacity battery that would increase weight and cost, the system divides the total energy capacity into several smaller battery packs that can be independently replaced. This allows the mobile robot to swap depleted battery packs with charged ones, eliminating downtime while maintaining reasonable weight and cost levels.
Solution Approach 2:
Battery packs are pre-charged before being installed on the mobile robot. The system maintains a supply of pre-charged battery packs ready for immediate installation. This preliminary charging action ensures that when a battery depletion occurs, a charged replacement is already available, eliminating the need to wait for charging during operation.
2Reliability
If additional mobile robots are purchased for backup to ensure continuous operation, then continuous operation is achieved, but additional costs and management complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple battery packs are designed with universal compatibility to work with the same mobile robot platform. This standardization allows a fleet of robots to share a common pool of interchangeable battery packs, eliminating the need for duplicate robots. The same battery pack design serves multiple robots, reducing overall system complexity and cost while maintaining continuous operation capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements a battery lifecycle management approach where depleted battery packs are discarded from service, recovered for recharging, and then returned to the active pool. This circular economy approach to battery management ensures continuous operation without requiring permanent backup robots, as batteries are continuously recovered and reused across the robot fleet.
3Duration of action of moving object
If the battery pack is designed with larger capacity to extend operation time, then the operation duration increases, but the battery replacement time and charging time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The total energy capacity is segmented into multiple smaller battery packs rather than using one large-capacity battery. This segmentation allows for faster replacement of individual smaller packs compared to replacing a single large pack. The mobile robot can quickly swap depleted packs with charged ones, reducing replacement time while achieving the same total operation duration through multiple packs.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables continuous operation of mobile robots by quickly replacing battery packs, reducing the need for additional robots and lowering management costs, while also optimizing battery usage based on state of charge and health.
Implementation Method 1
a power conversion device that converts commercial alternating current power into direct current power
Implementation Method 2
a charging elastic body that elastically supports the charging guide
Data Source
AI summary
A charging station includes a mounting module that separates or mounts a battery pack detachably coupled to a robot body of a mobile robot, a charging module that charges the battery pack separated by the mounting module, and a change module that transports the battery pack separated by the mounting module to a charging module.