“Charging robots have many advantages over charging piles.” Energy chain Research Institute said.

First of all, the charging robot makes the model of car charging and grid power supply separate, which becomes an effective way to disperse the peak power pressure; Secondly, it is difficult to install charging piles in limited scenarios such as old residential areas and selfless family parking Spaces, and charging robots can effectively solve this problem. At the same time, charging robots require less site costs, and there is no fixed charging piles and cable laying costs; Third, the charging robot can move, effectively avoiding the situation that the vehicle cannot be driven away in time after being fully charged, and improving the utilization efficiency of charging resources.

The reporter learned that at present, the charging robot mainly has three types of products with different structures, which are integrated, separated, and hanging/horizontal cooperative robot arm.

The integrated charging robot mainly refers to the charging power supply at the bottom of the robot and the cooperative robot arm at the top. This is a class of charging robot that integrates power supply and robot, similar to composite robot, but this kind of robot is due to the integrated design.

The separate charging robot mainly refers to the 2020 Volkswagen mobile charging concept robot Mobiler Laderoboter. The charging robot is divided into two parts: the power end and the battery end. The power end is equipped with automatic navigation and CAR-X communication system, which can tow the battery end to the location of the vehicle, charge the connection and leave, which can improve the overall operation efficiency.

The hanging/horizontal cooperative robot arm type charging robot mainly refers to the collaborative robot by hanging or combined with the charging pile, so that users can complete the charging action through the APP and other operating platforms. Through the combination of collaborative robots and charging piles, automatic charging of new energy vehicles is realized, the loss of charging guns is reduced, and the use experience of new energy owners is improved.

From the perspective of working principle, self-charging robot technology is not complicated. It is mainly composed of robot arm and motion control algorithm, charging texture knowledge system and positioning algorithm, charging gun and conductive charging wire harness.

When the vehicle is parked, the charging robot locates the charging port through the sensing system, and the robot arm aligns the charging gun head to the charging port according to the coordinates of the charging port and plugs it into the position. During the charging process, the charging gun is kept in a stable connection state. After it is fully charged, the mechanical arm draws the gun and the automatic charging process is completed.

Charging robot, charging pile and driverless collaboration

“In the future, charging robots, charging piles and driverless cars will work together effectively.” Energy chain research institute experts said.

At present, in view of technology and cost, charging robots have not yet been commercialized on a large scale, and many people in the industry have proposed that for new energy vehicles, with the increasing perfection of the future charging station construction, mobile charging mode can become the mainstream in the future?

The energy chain Research Institute believes that in the face of such a trillion-level market for charging, the form of charging must be the existence of diversified and scenario-based needs. Different charging methods meet the requirements of different scenarios. With the gradual diversification of new energy vehicle replenishment methods, electricity is also sold in diversified forms at the terminal, including charging piles, mobile charging, and electricity change. Therefore, the mobile replenishment market has nearly a trillion imagination space in the future.

At present, in some areas that are not suitable for building fixed charging piles, charging robots have practical value and can solve problems such as the inconvenience of charging new energy vehicles. The charging robot can move freely, occupy a small area, the deployment is more flexible and convenient, and the charging operation is simpler, so that the charging robot application is not affected by too much environmental factors, and the adaptability and autonomy are also strong.

More importantly, robots instead of human electric car charging is already visible trend. Although it is not yet popular, the demand for automatic charging is slowly fermenting with the popularity of electric vehicles and the improvement of consumers’ charging experience. In the future, charging robots will better meet the charging needs of autonomous driving, and the mobile replenishment market will meet the needs of future social intelligence and unmanned.