Wireless (Inductive) Charging

Charging a battery across a small gap using electromagnetic induction, with no plug involved.

Wireless charging uses electromagnetic induction (or magnetic resonance) to transfer power between a transmitter coil and a receiver coil, with no physical plug contact needed — it's common on phones and electric toothbrushes. For a robot, lining up precisely with a charging plug during autonomous docking is hard, and plug contacts wear out, collect dust, or get damp; wireless charging only requires the robot to stop at roughly the right spot, which relaxes the positioning accuracy needed and makes it easier to seal the robot against water. The tradeoff is that transfer efficiency is usually lower than wired charging, power is limited, and it generates heat. It's commonly used for autonomous return-to-charge on robot vacuums, AGVs, and inspection robots, and is one way to let a mobile robot run unattended for long stretches.

ExampleA warehouse AGV parks itself over a charging pad on the floor; a transmitter coil under the floor tops up the onboard battery with no cable ever plugged in.

Also called

Inductive Charging

Related

Autonomous Docking and Recharging · Battery Runtime · Battery Management System (BMS) · Autonomous Battery Swapping · Automated Guided Vehicle

Sources

Inductive charging - Wikipedia