Volkswagen is introducing a new concept that attempts to solve the infrastructure issues of electric vehicles in the form of mobile charging robots.
The VW Group Components’ division has created a mobile charging robot that drives itself autonomously to the parked electric vehicle, opens the charging flap and connects the plug; the entire process of charging your EV is done without any human interaction.
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The robot itself is dragging a trailer with a mobile energy storage device to the vehicle, which is used for charging the battery; the robot leaves the storage device with the car during the charging process as it continues its task to charge other electric vehicles. Once charging is done, the robot collects the storage devices and brings them back to the charging station.
The mobile charging robot is launched via a smartphone application or V2X communication. “The mobile charging robot will spark a revolution when it comes to charging in different parking facilities, such as multistorey car parks, parking spaces and underground car parks because we bring the charging infrastructure to the car and not the other way around. With this, we are making almost every car park electric, without any complex individual infrastructural measures”, said Mark Möller, Head of Development at Volkswagen Group Components.
When fully charged, the energy storage devices are carrying around 25 kWh of electricity, with the mobile robot able to carry several devices at the same time. These “battery wagons” feature up to 50 kW DC quick charging.
The robot itself is fitted with cameras, laser scanners and ultrasonic sensors, which allows it to move around in the parking area freely, recognizing possible obstacles and react to them, aside from carrying out the charging process completely on its own.
“It’s a visionary prototype, which can be made into reality quite quickly, if the general conditions are right”, Möller adds. Quick-charging stations and DC wall boxes are already part of VW’s EV strategy, with future solutions like this mobile charging robot currently under development for production.
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