Volkswagen charging robots can make every parking spot a charging station (Video)

One of the common issues every EV driver faces today is finding a parking lot with charging station!. This happens often, after driving through all the floors of the parking garage, finally you find a spot, but it is blocked by another car, or at worse, the spot is occupied by a car that is already fully charged and does not need any electricity at all!.

Volkswagen has thought about this issue and now wants to solve the problem with a mobile charging robot that drives autonomously to the electric car. So potentially, these mobile charging robots can make every parking spot in a garage to a charging station!.

How does the charging robot work?

Started via app or Vehicle-to-x communication, these charging robots can independently control the vehicle to be charged. These robots acts as a mobile battery storage and scrolls towards the vehicle. The charging robot and the electric car communicate with each other, and the rest of the process takes place without anyone having to lift a hand: the charging connector flap opens, the plug is inserted and the car is charged .

While the mobile battery remains with the car as long as it is being charged, the robot can now take care of charging additional electric vehicles. The robot just fetches the next battery trailer and drives it to another customer. When the charging service has ended, the robot picks up the mobile energy storage device independently and brings it back to the charging station. Isn’t awesome?

Below concept video released by Volkswagen may explain it well in a few seconds:



➤The study consists of a compact, self-driving robot and flexibly movable energy storage devices, so-called battery wagons. Each of these robots bring about 25 kWh of electrical energy. A loading robot can also pull several battery wagons at the same time. The battery wagon with its integrated charging electronics can enable DC fast charging with up to 50 kW.

➤These autonomously driving robots are equipped with cameras, laser scanners and ultrasonic sensors. This allows them to move freely in the parking space and avoid obstacles. Depending on the size of the parking area or the underground car park, several loading robots can be used in parallel and so many vehicles can be operated at the same time.

➤It’s still at concept stage ; underlying V2X communication technology is not mentioned anywhere; but I guess it would be ISO 15118 -20 (wireless) without saying. There is no date yet for a possible market launch of these charging robots.