Sensor Guided Docking of Autonomous Mobile Robot for Battery Recharging

Abstract

For uninterrupted working of autonomous mobile robot, battery level needs to be continuously monitored. Normally, few hours of peak usage may be provided by rechargeable batteries. The batteries need to be recharged when its voltage reaches threshold value. The autonomous mobile robot docking for recharging is implemented in this paper. The robot employs sensors, microcontroller ATMEGA16 and voltage divider circuit. The robot has two sensors, IR sensor and Ultrasonic sensor which finds the obstacle (docking station) and orient the robot in the proper position for docking and recharging. The discharging voltage of the battery is detected using voltage divider circuit. The robot’s ultrasonic and IR sensors perform the detection of docking station for battery recharging. Ultrasonic sensor helps to detect the obstacle and range from robot.IR sensor is used for the orientation of the robot at the exact position for docking purpose. These two sensors in the robot provide the data about the distance from the docking station to the microcontroller. The algorithm called as Random search algorithm (RAS) is developed to assist the robot to get docked for recharging. This algorithm randomly moves the robot to search the docking station, if found will move towards it and starts for docking and charging or else it rotates to the right. Atmel studio 6 is the software development environment used to write code in Embedded C language.