WIRELESS POWER TRANSFER SYSTEM FOR SCORBOT ER-4U ROBOTIC ARM

The application of robots is increasing in everyday life from industrial to household and commercial purposes. It is performing monotonous tasks like assembly, pick and place, welding, gripping, and spinning more rapidly and efficiently. In addition to the abovementioned task, robots perform a variety of jobs that humans hate and find dangerous and difficult. For smooth and efficient operation, the robot should be cable-free and wireless. An effort is being made to power these robots wirelessly. For wireless transfer of power over mid-range, magnetic resonance coupling is the most viable solution available so far. In this paper, the wireless power transfer (WPT) system is implemented for a SCORBOT ER 4U robotic arm, which powers all the joints of the robot wirelessly with a power source located at the robot base. The system has been analysed for three cases, i.e., coaxial coils, laterally displaced coils, and angularly displaced coils. The link efficiency for coaxial coils robotic arm orientation is found to be 45% when the distance between coils is 76 cm. For lateral misalignment, receiver coils for motors 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 always remain stationary for the transmitter coil and the voltage induced is 28 V, 38 V, 38 V, 57 V, and 57 V, respectively. In this article, the efficiency of four robotic arm orientations for laterally angular misalignment is discussed, and the results obtained by varying the value of gamma (angle between the receiver coil plane and the horizontal plane) for each orientation are presented and discussed.