Autonomous charging station for the ZEBRO

Bachelor thesis (2017)

Authors

N.J. de Jong Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
T. Heijnen Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

Contributors

C.J.M. Verhoeven (graduation committee member)
R. Bos (mentor)
E.A. Hakkennes (mentor)
Faculty
Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
Copyright: © 2017 Niels de Jong, Tom Heijnen
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Published Date

11-07-2017

Language

English

Reuse Rights

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Faculty

Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

Abstract

The ZEBRO is a fully autonomous six-legged robot designed for swarm behaviour and is the size of an A4 sheet of paper. However, there does not exist an charging station for the ZEBRO yet. At this time, the battery still has to be replaced manually, which defeats the purpose of an autonomous system. An autonomous charging station has to be designed to complete the system. The charging station can be split into 3 parts: the autonomous charging station, the wireless power transfer, and the battery management system (located in the ZEBRO). In this particular thesis, the autonomous charging station will be discussed.
Since all components in the ZEBRO are built to be modular, the design of the autonomous charging station is chosen to fit this principle. The charging station will consist of one central unit, and several connectable (modular) pads. Each pad will be able to hold and charge a single ZEBRO in 30 minutes.
The charging station contains a communication module to communicate its location to ZEBRO's in need of charging. To calculate the locations of the connected pads, a grid will be created by serial communication between the charging station and the connected pads through Raspberry Pi's. (The pads do not have a communication module and do not have their location defined)
To power the wireless power transfer unit, a power supply of 48V and 500W will be implemented in the charging station. Each pad will consume about 100W, so a maximum of 4 pads can be connected. (Due to power loss). If more pads need to be connected, an additional power supply can be put in parallel.
All separate components have been simulated or tested and do work as predicted. The integration of all components of the charging station was successful as well. At this time, the complete system with the wireless power transfer and battery management system has not yet been put together and so it is unknown if it works as a whole.

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