An Universal, Inductively Coupled Battery Charger for Robot Power Supplies

This report describes the design, construction and test results of an inductively coupled battery charger for robot power supplies. The system should be capable of charging several robot batteries at once from a contactless charging station. The charger should be capable of providing different charging conditions to several different kinds of battery at once. The system should be capable of charging all of the popular rechargeable battery types in use today. The system contains a bi-directional, half-duplex Inductive Power Transfer (IPT) communications channel. The communications channel relays data between the charging station and the pickup. This allows the charging station to implement a smart charging algorithm based on current battery parameters measured on the pickup side. It also provides feedback to allow the charging station to regulate the total amount of power provided to the system, depending on the current requirements of the batteries on the charging station. The communications system uses the same inductive link as the power transfer system and operates by modulating the data signal onto the power signal.