Power supply of a modular mobile robot in combination with a communication channel over power supply lines

Abstract

The article is devoted to the development of a full-featured power supply module with an integrated communication channel over the power supply lines. The module is intended to perform the energy function of a mobile robot (MR), namely, to provide power to all electronic and mechatronic units of mobile robots with modular architecture. In contrast to the power supply unit for robots with mono-block architecture, in this case, the module power supply node must be made in the form of a full-featured module, i.e. meet a number of special requirements: 1 - structurally it must be made as a separate module, easily included in the design of the modular robot and possess the ability to quickly build up its power; 2 - the control system must monitor the state of the battery and power consumption of each of the MR’s modules, to manage the process of switching them off / on; 3 - to have an information communication channel with all MR’s modules for dynamic control of the power supply to each of the modules, including the supervisor module for subsequent transfer power status parameters to the operator of the MR by the radio channel. As a part of the solution of the problem the concept of sub-module principle of organizing the structure of the power supply module of modular mobile robot was developed, battery power submodule and submodule decoder based on PLC modem using DC-PLC technology (Direct Current Power Line Communication), which provides the formation of an intermodular information communication channel over the power supply lines, were designed and manufactured.