Version vom 15. Januar 2015, 15:46 Uhr

Basic principle

By the help of the perimeter wire loop, the robot finds its charging station where it can be charged again. So, it drives along the perimeter wire (in clock-wise direction) until it detects a charging voltage at its charging pins. There the robot stops and recharges its battery.

Charger

The charger is in the robot charging station (aka 'cradle') (or is connected to). The charger should accomplish the following things (in this case Lithium-Ion, lead battery is similar, but less critical):

• Charge battery pack via the charging pins of the robot
• Maximum cutoff voltage / charge voltage compliance (charging voltage limit)
• Maximum charging current compliance (charging current limit)

If you are using an existing charging station, these things were implemented with high probability already there.

Robot

In the robot itself, the battery voltage is monitored (see diagram below). So it can be determined when the robot must go to the charging station. The robot and the voltage and the current during charging is controlled. So it can be determined whether the robot has reached the charger and when the battery is fully charged again. Ideally, the charging station also eat the loop transmitter:

charging station circuit:

 Power supply => Charger 24V (+)----- Charging station charger pin(+)
                 GND         (-)----- Charging station charger pin(-)
                 Charger 24V (+)----- DC-DC converter 5V  => Perimeter sender Arduino Nano  
                 Charger 24V (+)----- DC-DC converter 12V => Perimeter sender MC motor driver

robot charging circuit:

 Charging station (+)---+------+-- relais ---- current sensor ----- battery (+)
                               |
                               ---- voltage sensing
 Charging station (-)-- +------------------------------------------ battery (-)

Charge plotting

Via pfodApp (Android) you can get a plot of the charging process.

Charging station ideas

Videos

1. Driving into charging station
2. Drive in and out
3. Tracking and docking

Further links