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Characterizing Energy Usage of a Commercially Available Ground Robot: Method and Results
Author(s) -
Broderick John A.,
Tilbury Dawn M.,
Atkins Ella M.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of field robotics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.152
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1556-4967
pISSN - 1556-4959
DOI - 10.1002/rob.21507
Subject(s) - robot , energy (signal processing) , computer science , environmental science , artificial intelligence , mathematics , statistics
Energy usage by mobile robots is becoming a larger concern as autonomous systems increase mission durations. Understanding and characterizing energy usage is key to reliable mission operation. This paper presents a methodology for characterizing energy usage of a ground robot traveling at a constant speed applicable to both open and “black box” (proprietary) platforms. To address testing area limitations, we introduce a “rounded box” path to approximate straight line travel. For a case study, this methodology was applied to an iRobot Packbot on grass and asphalt surfaces. Our results show a decrease in electrical energy used with increasing speed for soft grass and constant energy usage on asphalt. For both surfaces, a similar electrical‐to‐mechanical efficiency curve is obtained.