When plugging your own EV into a charge point, whether at home or out and about, do you ever think there could (or should) be a robot to do this for you?
With artificial intelligence (AI) seeming to be everywhere we look, and ChatGPT seemingly taking over our lives as a chatbot that ‘understands’ us, it was only a matter of time before somebody cut out the middleman of plugging in an EV to charge it, and developed a robot to do it for you.
Say hello, or wave robotically, to Hyundai’s ACR (Automatic Charging Robot – not the catchiest name we’ve heard).
How does it work?
Don’t worry, you won’t even need to get out of the car!
Just park up (however you like, they’ve done loads of research into different scenarios) and the one-armed robot – which sits on a four-wheeled base – will communicate with the EV before wheeling over towards the car.
It will then open the charge port door and plug the cable in to charge it, calculating the exact location and angle thanks to control technology applied by a 3D camera-based AI algorithm.
And when the charge is complete, the ACR removes the cable and closes the charging port door. Nifty!
Why do we need this?
At first glance, it may look a bit like a fad, but the Hyundai ACR will help to overcome various accessibility issues when it comes to charging EVs, plus it’s likely we’ll all start to struggle lifting the charge cables pretty soon as they get thicker and heavier to deliver faster charging.
It’s also been developed to operate reliably in all environments, including wet weather, and we all know the struggle of filling in up in the pouring rain, right?
Dong Jin Hyun, robotics lab chief for Hyundai Motor Group, said: “The ACR will help to make EV-charging easier and more convenient, especially in dark environments.
"We will continue developing the ACR for increased safety and more convenience, so that all EV customers can soon benefit from using it at charging stations.”
Hyundai Motor Group expects automatic charging robots to significantly increase convenience of EV charging, and if combined with autonomous parking control systems in future, could improve operation by sequentially charging several parked vehicles.
So it looks like the robots could be here to stay – we’re just wondering what to do with those extra minutes we no longer have to spend hooking up the EV!
