Fully Automatic Vehicle Charging
Description
Together with the world's leading automotive OEMs, VOLTERIO is developing a revolutionary automatic connection device for electric vehicles. VOLTERIO is the smartest, fully automatic, and affordable high power charging solution. The system does not require precise parking and can be easily integrated/retrofitted to almost every electric vehicle architecture because of the small packaging size as well as the low complexity of the onboard unit. The system comprises an onboard and offboard unit: Vehicle Unit-Onboard unit in the car’s underbody or Ground Unit-Offboard charging robot.
Charging via a physical connection to the vehicle’s underbody is not only the most logical approach, but also enables the simplest possible robotic for an automatic connection. Due to the self-centering, high power 360-deg.-connector design, the angular orientation of the parking electric vehicle does not matter. Unlike inductive charging, whereas the vehicle must be positioned very precisely, the charging robot can handle large parking misalignments 0,4 x 0,4 m.
The VOLTERIO ground unit starts automatically to communicate with the electric vehicle's onboard unit via a secure WLAN connection when approaching. The electric vehicle does not need to be parked precisely over the ground unit. When charging is requested the ground unit automatically connects to the vehicle unit in the car's underbody guided by an ultrasound-based micro-navigation system and the charging process starts automatically or can be scheduled by intelligent charging management.
The compact designed ground unit measures only 800 mm in length, 420 mm in width, and 68 mm in height. Alternatively, a not yet unveiled version of the charging robot, which will also be fully interoperable, is flat embedded in the ground. The ground unit's large working area compensates parking inaccuracies through a longitudinal and rotational movement.
When inactive, the charger is inconspicuous, only a 6-cm high structure on the floor. The car is then parked over it for charging. Next, a robot arm extends telescopically. At the end of this arm is a connector which seeks its counterpart on the car's underbody. The two components have previously exchanged information with each other via encrypted wireless communication. And since the conical-round current carrier is not a connector in the traditional sense, it is still able to make full contact even if the car is not parked in the optimal position. An ultrasonic system is used to make sure that the arm accurately finds its target. The connection is established in less than 15 seconds.
The connector must simply be within a range of 50x50 cm, and the car can even be parked at an angle. It is also possible to embed the entire unit in the floor for new constructions of garages or parking spots. The charging capacity of a charger with home connection is 22 kilowatts, which means that even the largest car batteries can be fully charged in 4 to 5 hours. The technology itself is designed to handle up 100 kilowatts DC, which lowers the charging time to an hour.