One of the biggest obstacles to widespread EV adoption is the charging infrastructure. Carving out several dedicated spaces or establishing charging stations at every parking lot will require time and money, but Volkswagen is focusing on a solution that allows an EV to be charged from the regular automobile parking space: robots. And now it's moved beyond the concept stage to a real prototype.
Called simply the “mobile charging robot,” which we’ll call MCR for brief, the squat, R2-D2-like droid resides in a dedicated charging bay that can be installed in any corner of the city parking garage. It even includes a friendly robot face with LCD eyes that “open” when it’s called and a little extendable arm. Alongside it are some trailers made up of battery stacks that charge in the bay keep.
When an EV driver pulls in to the lot, they can pick any parking space that they like and, using a smartphone app, tell the robot they’d like a charge. The MCR awakens, grabs an available trailer with its arm, and brings a clip towards the car. The trailers don’t have an autonomous function, but the droid is sensible enough to avoid obstacles and traffic in the garage. Once at the car, the arm helps plug the connector into the charging port and the Wall-E-like ‘bot is free to attend to other cars and trailers. No human intervention is needed.
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It’s a pretty clever solution, and one that won’t require a massive revamp of current parking structures. What’s more, VW hints this is just the beginning. “We are developing methods to help avoid costly stand-alone measures. The mobile charging robot and our flexible quick-charging station are just two of these solutions,\” says Thomas Schall, CEO of Volkswagen Group Components.
Volkswagen says that the machine has already been undergoing testing in Germany, and has successfully reached the prototype stage. The organization says it will likely be launched in early 2021.
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