Snake Shaped Robot Developed by Tesla Automatically Looks For Car Charging Port and Looks Magic

Snake Shaped Robot Developed by Tesla will change the Car Charging Port industry?

Elon Musk described the future situation of Tesla car charging in this way: park the car in the cafe, you go in for a cup of coffee, Tesla will find the nearest charging pile by itself, and the wire of the charging pile will be automatically inserted into the charging port.

The whole process is just as illustrated in the moving picture above. When the vehicle is parked, the Snake Shaped Robot charging gun will automatically bend down to find the charging interface on the vehicle, and automatically connect with the charging interface to start charging. The whole process does not require manual participation.

Some media said that Tesla’s charging mechanical snake is very similar to the bionic hand of German manufacturer FESTO. FESTO’s bionic hand won the German future award in 2010.

The design of FESTO R & D team was inspired by the elephant’s nose. They analyzed its structure and function, and combined with the most advanced manufacturing technology to create this new bionic handling assistant. The bionic handling assistant has eleven degrees of freedom and can be competent for a specific transportation direction, while the traditional handling system can only be used in the straight transportation direction.

The structure of FESTO bionic hand is very flexible. It is slightly stiff only when pneumatic control is required, so it can move forward along the required path. Unlike conventional industrial manipulators, bionic handling assistants comply with safety regulations and do not need to be separated from people.

Bionic handling assistant can ensure safety in any working state. It can be used in applications that need machine support but will not cause harm to people. It can be used in agriculture, families, nursing institutions or industrial handling systems to support the assembly process.

The material is mainly made of plastic pipe, which is not only elegant and flexible, but also can carry out handling and loading and unloading through stretching and curling like the action of an elephant rolling up objects with its nose, which can also solve the safety problems that have plagued industrial robots for a long time.

After it is connected with the automatic system device, the resistance sensor will collect the contact force signal to assist its attitude control. The plastic pipe is as soft and powerful as the third hand of the operator, which greatly facilitates the work of automobile assembly. The whole mechanical elephant trunk abandons the heavy hydraulic and pneumatic or motor driving mode of the traditional manipulator.

Although this bionic robot hand moves slowly, it has no use in industrial production lines. But it is safer than the robot hand. Therefore, in the manned environment such as the charging station, the bionic hand will undoubtedly be the most suitable automatic charging device.

Tesla is developing a charger similar to the metal snake and is suitable for all current model S models. What we see now is the working demonstration of this automatic charging pile. Its final form will be hidden in the wall. Only when charging, it will stretch out the charging port to charge the car.

This bionic robot looks like a snake and an insect. Seeing it for the first time will bring discomfort to some friends. However, it will soon be attracted by its scientific and technological modeling, and the delicacy in texture and detail is comparable to that of art.

Functionally, this technology is not only cool, but also can save a lot of time and energy for car owners. After Tesla electric vehicle is parked in the garage, the cover of the charging port within the sensing range is automatically opened, and the charging snake of Snake Shaped Robot moves to a specific position to charge it according to the three-dimensional calculation.

The refueling steps are simplified into one step of driving home from the traditional ones: paying, opening the fuel tank cover, picking up the nozzle handle, selecting the oil number, inserting the nozzle into the fuel tank, waiting for a few minutes, pulling out the nozzle and putting it back, closing the fuel tank cover and driving home.

Compared with the electromagnetic induction technology of wireless charging, wired charging technology will be more effective in dealing with high-power output. When this technology is mature, it is also expected to play a great role in the automatic charging of new energy vehicles in three-dimensional parking garage.

You are welcome to visit video centre of Tallman Robotics to watch more projects and applications.