A Novel Power Management System for Autonomous Robots

Abstract

In this paper, an automatic battery recharging system for autonomous robot is presented. Its design and implementation are based on some standard electronic components integrated to build the Power Management System (PMS)’ Integrated Circuit (IC) board. This PMS consists of a limit switch (LS), an infrared sensor (IR), and an integrated circuit (IC). This IC is designed and simulated and the simulation result show that it is feasible and reliable. Thus a prototype IC board has been built and mounted on a four wheeled robot with three applicative levels. Each level has its own Industrial Personal Computer (IPC) for a specific task. These IPCs communicate with each other data and commands via the RS232 and RJ45 ports. In addition, this robot communicates with the battery charger by infrared. In this designed PMS, the risk of electrical damage is avoided when connecting the robot to the charger. Apart to the simulation results, the recharging time of a battery (24 V, 3000 Ah) discharged from 18 V to 24 V is about 7 h. The built system provides a safe recharging system avoiding all damages in robot and its charger at the docking time. The proposed PMS system is reliable and can safely recharge the battery of any autonomous robot properly connected to the charger.