Omni-directional inductive power transfer system for mobile robots using evenly displaced multiple pick-ups

The IPTS for mobile robots which has the single wire layer of easily fabricable power floor structure and the evenly displaced multi pick-up structure for receiving uniform power is proposed. Due to its simple structure, a wide area power floor of 3.15 m2 (1.5 m × 2.1 m) could be fabricated as a proto type. Three pick-ups with evenly displaced angle and space are adopted considering the limited bottom area of the free moving mobile robot. The size and position of each pickup are optimized for the given sub winding size of the power floor and magnetic pole arrangement. Experiments for the prototype show that the proposed multi pick-up structure lowers the spatial output power variation and that enough output power of 10 W can be obtained for the mobile robots.