According to the British market research institute Interact Analysis, the rapidly growing market for mobile robots grew by 53% in 2022. Around four million mobile robots are expected to be in use worldwide by the end of 2027. However, increasingly large, multi-site robot fleets pose a real challenge for OEMs and users in terms of service, maintenance and safety. For example, if a fault occurs in the energy system of an automated guided vehicle (AGV) or an autonomous mobile robot (AMR), it cannot be localized online. The reason for this is that conventional charging solutions with sliding or plug connections do not record any data about the energy supply. This means that a service technician has to locate and rectify the fault on site. Including travel time, this means that a mobile robot may well be out of action for several days. With hundreds or even thousands of AGVs that companies will have to monitor in the future, this will lead to high service costs and expensive production downtime, which will multiply.

Shortened battery life

The consequences of a lack of energy data can also be seen in the example of the charging rate (C-rate): Some battery or fleet management systems record rudimentary data points, but these are not evaluated and used for forecasts.

As a result, AGVs are often charged at too high a C-rate, regardless of the actual order volume. This shortens the service life of the battery. In most cases, the fleet manager starts the charging process as soon as a defined battery capacity value is reached. As a result, all robots drive to the charging stations at the same time, causing the energy consumption of a location to rise sharply in the short term and resulting in high costs due to peak loads.

Reduce service costs

Smart Robot Charging makes it possible to monitor the energy systems of large robot fleets online and reduce the energy consumption of mobile robots through intelligent charging management.

© Wiferion

One solution to this problem is Smart Robot Charging. All the data generated by the energy systems of AGVs and AMRs is recorded, linked together and used for optimized fleet management. More than 70 data points are required for intelligent vehicle charging.

Wiferion's solution for smart robot charging for mobile robots is the Charge Optimization Platform 'etaHUB'. It accesses Wiferion's inductive charging systems and batteries, with which extensive information such as battery temperature, mains voltage and battery state of health (SoH) is recorded in real time. The cloud-based etaHUB software makes this data usable. For the first time, it can be used to diagnose and rectify faults in the energy system of mobile robots online, as the Charge Optimization Platform monitors the state of charge in real time. If an error occurs in the energy system, it is displayed in a dashboard. A push message can also be sent to a PC or cell phone. Fault analysis is carried out remotely - a clear advantage for increasingly large robot fleets that are distributed across several locations. Instead of sending a service technician every time a fault occurs, the operator can use etaHUB to analyze in detail whether the fault is attributable to the energy system and initiate countermeasures. This saves users enormous service costs and enables OEMs to easily monitor their fleets as part of their service order.

Longer battery life

Wiferion's Charge Optimization Platform 'etaHUB' monitors the charge status of AGVs and AMRs in real time.

© Wiferion

Smart Robot Charging can extend battery life by up to 10% by intelligently controlling the charging and discharging speed (C-rate). Integrated into a fleet manager, etaHUB creates an optimal charging plan for each robot based on its workload. The software reduces the C-rate at times when there are few transport orders to conserve battery power and increases the loading speed when the robots have to process many orders.

The software also takes into account how long the other robots in the fleet will be at a charging station and how much energy they will need for their work until the next charging interval. The fleet manager can schedule the AGVs precisely and without redundant charging times. This allows fleets to be operated in a balanced manner between transport orders and charging breaks. The Charge Optimization Platform also increases production safety, as the system communicates with the fleet manager to move the robot to a safety zone if the battery temperature is too high.

Store when it's cheap

Robert Gibbons is Chief Digital Officer (CDO) at Wiferion in Freiburg

© Wiferion

In times when energy prices continue to rise, another function of etaHUB is also of interest to many companies, as Smart Robot Charging helps users to save energy costs. Wiferion's software can shift the charging times of mobile robots to times when electricity costs are low - for example at night, when electricity demand is generally lower.

In doing so, etaHUB also takes into account factors such as the current and future electricity price, the availability of renewable energy, for example from photovoltaic systems, and the general capacity utilization of the site. Operators thus avoid peak loads and high electricity prices and sustainably reduce their CO2 footprint.