Procedure of Selecting Optimum Capacity and Voltage for an On-Board Electric Power Supply System Accumulators

Objectives: This article aims at discovering possibilities of full use of resources of on-board power supply units against any limitations that arise in operation of robotic systems. Methods: Large-scale implementation of mobile robotic systems determines feasibility of more severe requirements to engineering solutions that are specified for the design of such systems. Simulation of an accumulator discharge process with the given supplied power schedule of an electric propulsion system and other on-board systems is an approach to optimizing the electric power supply and electric propulsion systems that is used in this article. Findings: An accumulator battery discharge model is proposed based on which the algorithm for calculating the actual battery capacity is developed. The input data for the algorithm is a family of discharge characteristics given in the tabular form and containing the curves U = f (C) for some finite set of discharge currents. Optimization criteria for electric propulsion and electric power supply systems are discussed, the relevance of task of accurate calculation of accumulator battery capacity against an alternative schedule of supplied power is justified, key electric power consumers and specifications are provided, and a list of input data to calculate the electric power supply system is made. A block diagram of use efficiency estimation of accumulator batteries is offered. Applications/Improvements: The developed algorithm for calculating the actual battery capacity for a given power consumption schedule can be used to select batteries with the lowest possible weight. Application of the proposed methodology for assessing the utilization efficiency of accumulator batteries will improve the mass-dimensional indicators of the developed mobile systems, as well as reduce their cost and power consumption.