Consideration of contactless power station with selective excitation to moving robot

A new method of contactless energy transmission to a moving machine is prop osed. This system is useful for application with moving robots, including e lectric vehicles such as an electric wheelchair, an automatic guided vehicl e, and so on. A moving robot was used as a model experimental system with t hese loads. The primary coils, an arrangement of spiral coils used with the selective excitation system, are located on the floor. A secondary spiral coil is attached to the bottom of the rebut. The robot receives the magneti c flux radiating from the primary coils, which serves as the power source f or the robot. In terms of electric power, in this experimental system the r obot needs at least 2 W to start moving. As the robot moves, the excitation follows its movement. We have studied the characteristics of power transmi ssion when the robot moves from one primary coil to another. This selective excitation system was found to be very effective for the overall efficienc y of electric power transmission. We also examined the efficiency of the co il system used herein. Based on a comparison of the closed magnetic loop ci rcuit and the open magnetic loop circuit, the efficiency of the former dete rmined to be 70 [%] and that of the latter was determined to be 9 [%], A mo nitoring system was constructed to ascertain which coil was excited. Based on our results, it would be possible to apply this contactless power transm ission system to larger systems.