An Auto-Recharging System Design and Implementation Based on Infrared Signal for Autonomous Robots

Auto-recharging system is one of an interesting progress in the field of autonomous robot. This paper describes the design and implementation of a new docking strategy and a new auto-recharging system called power management system (PMS) for autonomous robot. This docking strategy give to the robot the possibility to quickly docks at the docking station. The new PMS controls the battery recharging process and then allowing a redundant verification (repetitive) of the connection status between the robot and the docking station. We define first the global navigational space composed of the docking space and working space using the three infrared transmitters (IRTs). Secondly, through an improved kobuki's navigational algorithm in ROS, the robot's navigational data are collected. We investigated on the better positions and the orientation of the three infrared receivers (IRRs) placed on the robot. Thus that to determine the shortest arrival time (SAT) of the robot at the docking station. Many experiments are conducted with different scenarios characterized by different positions of the three IRRs on the robot. The experimental results on the collected data allowed to identify the best positions and orientation angle on the robot where to positions these IRRs. Thus we used these positions and angle to obtain the robot's SAT (the optimal docking time) at the docking station.