The use of battery-powered robots is growing across applications such as factory automation, agriculture, campus and consumer delivery, and warehouse inventory management. For maximum operating time between charges, designers of these battery systems have always needed to be concerned about power conversion efficiency, as well as size and weight. However, these concerns have become more critical as load capacities continue to increase and sensing and safety features such as vision, ranging, proximity, location, among others, add design complexity and physical weight. At the same time, the additional electronics processing required also consumes more power.
small size (high power density) and overall performance. This approach can result in a lighter overall power system, enabling further performance gains for battery-powered robotic systems. Flexibility is also enhanced since power conversion components can be paralleled to easily scale as robotic power demands increase, and they also allow for the same power architecture to be deployed across a platform of various-sized robotic systems. This article briefly outlines the power needs of several robotics applications including agricultural harvesting, campus and consumer delivery, and warehouse inventory movement. It will then review the benefits of using a component- based distributed power delivery architecture, and then introduce example DC/DC converter solutions from Vicor, along with evaluation boards and associated software to help designers get started.
Power requirements for robots The power requirements for specific types of robots are determined by the application: ■ Agricultural harvesting robots: plant, maintain, and harvest produce (fruits, vegetables, grains) using automated vehicle guidance along with visual recognition and multiple environmental and soil analysis sensors. These large robotic vehicles are typically powered from a high-voltage DC source of 400 volts or more ■ Delivery robots: last-mile consumer or campus delivery of various items. While payloads vary in size and weight, these robots are typically powered by 48 to 100 volt batteries and have longer run time requirements than the warehouse inventory moving class of robots ■ Warehouse inventory moving robots: provide inventory
To maximize battery life in the face of these additional
challenges, designers can turn to a component-based distributed power delivery architecture to power the motors, CPUs and other subsystems. In such an approach, each individual DC/ DC power conversion component can be placed at the point of load (PoL) To maximize battery life in the face of these additional challenges, designers can turn to a component-based distributed power delivery architecture to power the motors, CPUs and other subsystems. In such an approach, each individual DC/DC power conversion component can be placed at the point of load (PoL) and optimized for high efficiency,
Why and how to use a component-based distributed power architecture for robotics Written by Jeff Shepard
Figure 1: This PDN for 15.4kW agricultural harvesting robots comprises a 760 volt distribution bus supporting a network of lower voltage converters (DCMs, PRMs, NBMs, and buck. Image source: Vicor
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