Vision-Based Autonomous Robot Self-Docking and Recharging

This paper presents a method for autonomous recharging of a mobile robot, a necessity for achieving long-term robotic activity without human intervention. A recharging station is designed consisting of a stationary docking station and a docking mechanism mounted to an ER-1 Evolution Robotics robot. The docking station and docking mechanism serve as a dual-power source, providing a mechanical and electrical connection between the recharging system of the robot and a laptop placed on it. Docking strategy algorithms use vision based navigation. The result is a significantly low-cost, high-entrance angle tolerant system. Iterative improvements to the system, to resist environmental perturbations and implement obstacle avoidance, ultimately resulted in a docking success rate of 100 percent over 50 trials.