Xnergy's contactless charging for AGVs
ROBOTS are ideal factory workers, able to work long hours without complaint or decline in performance. It is no wonder that they are seen as key in the Industry 4.0 transformation as processes are increasingly digitised and streamlined.
However, robots like the automated guided vehicles (AGVs) used in many advanced manufacturing factories still have their drawbacks, such as the need to spend several minutes or hours recharging when their batteries are depleted.
Companies acquiring AGV fleets for their smart factories have to cater for this downtime by buying and maintaining additional AGVs. This may not be a big deal for a company requiring 10 robots, but quickly becomes an issue for larger firms.
"We have customers that are using thousands and thousands of robots. If you add 30 per cent more (to the fleet), you're spending millions just to keep them charging. That's not acceptable," said Tong Chin Foong, CEO and co-founder of autonomous technology developer Xnergy Autonomous Power Technologies.
He said his company has the solution - a contactless charger that boosts battery power within seconds.
The conventional method of electric charging requires metal-to-metal contact, which poses two problems. One is wear and tear on the contact points, the other is increased danger with higher voltage, since there is exposed metal on the device. For the second reason, the power has to be kept below a certain level, increasing charging time.
Xnergy's contactless charger seals all the components within a compact box, allowing it to supply higher amounts of charging power while remaining safe to touch.
With such a system, the AGVs can truly work round-the-clock, topping up their batteries by pausing every now and then at chargers strategically located along their routes or in areas where they wait to be loaded with goods. The charging unit is also small enough to be installed on most AGVs, which could eliminate the need to have specific chargers for each type of device.
Europe is Xnergy's target market, said Dr Tong, and for that reason, it participated in the Hannover Messe trade show in Germany from Apr 1-5 to reach more customers in the region.
"Industry 4.0 companies here are screaming for this kind of solution to solve charging issues, because they are using more robots but the robots are very, very slow in charging," he said.
Xnergy licences the technology from Nanyang Technological University, where it was developed, and also employs the team that developed it. The company was incorporated in May 2018 and counts Enterprise Singapore and Trirec among its investors.
It has conducted several pilots in Singapore and Europe and expects to ship out its wireless charger units by the end of 2019. It is also working with the Singapore Standards Committee to standardise its product so it can be used as a universal charger with multiple robots, Dr Tong said.
