In the future, recharging the batteries of an electric car will have to be done as quickly as possible, without the driver losing more than mere minutes of his trip. And, preferably, without the driver needing to get out of the car. This is the goal of the Institute of Automotive Engineering of the University of Graz, Austria, which has created a robot to charge the battery of its electric car.

 

Bernhard Walzel, leader of the research team, explains that "we found a way to automatically load multiple vehicles, one after another, using a robotic charging station, and without having to adapt the vehicles to the system. This robot recognizes the charging plug through a camera, and manages to charge each electric car as it passes through the station. We also solve the problem with the position of the vehicle, so the robot can work even when the car is parked outside the site.

 

This robot can work both in outdoor recharging stations and inside a building. To ensure that it could operate in several environments and with more than one type of vehicle, this division of the Austrian university worked in conjunction with another of its faculties, the Institute of Computer Graphics, to create cameras and sensors capable of identifying the model and the position of the car and to make the movable elements of the robot put in the correct position.

 

Two car industry companies, the BMW brand and the Magna Steyr factory, have collaborated with the University of Graz to create this system, and may be the first to benefit from the use of this technology. BMW is a partner of Ionity, a joint venture created by several car manufacturers to create standardized systems for charging electric cars. The Ionity network will be fast chargers scattered across European highways, which could be even more efficient if they use the robot created by the University of Graz.

 

Source, Motor 24.