Authors:
Carlos Arantes
1
;
João Sena Esteves
2
and
João Sepúlveda
2
Affiliations:
1
University of Minho, Portugal
;
2
Centre Algoritmi and University of Minho, Portugal
Keyword(s):
Ultracapacitors, Batteries, Fast Electric Charger, Mobile Robot Platform, Energy Management.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Energy Efficiency and Green Manufacturing
;
Engineering Applications
;
Industrial Engineering
;
Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics
;
Intelligent Control Systems and Optimization
;
Mobile Robots and Autonomous Systems
;
Robotics and Automation
;
Signal Processing, Sensors, Systems Modeling and Control
Abstract:
The smallest charging times required by fully discharged conventional batteries are some tens of minutes.
This is an important limitation for mobile robot platforms. A previous paper already validated the possibility
of integrating ultracapacitors and batteries in the same system. However, it has some significant limitations:
1) It works with an ultracapacitors module or a battery, but it does not work with both devices at the same
time; 2) It requires an external dedicated charging station; 3) It is not possible to take profit from a part –
which is non-negligible – of the energy previously stored in the ultracapacitors. This paper presents a new
power supply system for mobile robot platforms that has been developed in order to overcome these
limitations. Its main goals are evaluating the feasibility of: 1) Fully integrating batteries and ultracapacitors,
working simultaneously as energy-storing devices, with the aim of enabling a mobile robot platform to
achieve a reasonable autono
my after a very reduced charging time and considerable autonomy when there
are no charging time constraints; 2) Installing all the system in the mobile robot platform, avoiding the use
of an external dedicated charging station; 3) Extracting almost all the energy previously stored in the
ultracapacitors. Both simulation results and experimental results are presented.
(More)