In the event you’ve ever tried charging your telephone on a wi-fi charging mat solely to understand after an hour that it by no means charged as a result of it was simply mildly misaligned, you’ll perceive the frustration of car-makers who’ve been eager to wirelessly cost EVs. You see, it’s positive straightforward to plug an EV right into a charging port, however no one actually likes the hassle of stepping out, discovering a cable, plugging it in, and ready in your automobile to cost. It’s loads simpler to simply drive onto a wi-fi charging mat and have your automobile charged whereas it’s parked (and when you’re sitting comfortably inside).
The issue, nevertheless, is that alignment. Wi-fi charging is barely environment friendly when the coils on the charger and the receiver align completely. Lose the alignment and the power will get misplaced too, leading to a battery that isn’t charged. The issue could also be minor, however its implications are huge when you think about how giant a automobile battery is (particularly in comparison with your telephone). The answer in accordance with South Korean designer Lee Dong Ju is pretty easy – a robotic that drives to your automobile and autonomously aligns the coils beneath your EV for environment friendly charging.
Designer: Lee Dong Ju
A winner of the Pink Dot Award: Design Idea for the yr 2024, EV.BUDDY is a modern little autonomous robotic that may drive round, sliding proper underneath an EV with a low battery. The platform-shaped robotic is slim sufficient to simply slip beneath any EV (irrespective of how little the bottom tolerance), utilizing a collection of sensors to detect the wi-fi charging zone on the EV’s underside. As soon as it does so, the EV.BUDDY raises its coils upwards to make sure they arrive involved with the automobile, and the charging course of begins.
The EV.BUDDY homes its personal battery, though given how slim it’s, one wonders what the battery capability can be. As a substitute of you stepping out and configuring something, the EV.BUDDY drives as much as your automobile on-demand and begins the charging course of, no muss no fuss. Positive, it’s only a idea for now, however I’d think about it could work moderately effectively sooner or later, the place you can simply park your automobile at a Goal or an IKEA and even at work and have the EV.BUDDY autonomously drive as much as your automobile, provoke the charging protocol, and juice your automobile’s battery with out you doing something in any respect!
As soon as it’s carried out, the EV.BUDDY slides out and drives again to its personal station, the place its battery will get replenished so it may well cost the subsequent automobile.
