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Volkswagen Will Use Robots to Automatically Plug Electric Cars into Chargers

Volkswagen is taking electric cars very seriously, and because it believes this is the future, the German company wants to figure out everything its customers might need. Aren't you tired of those annoying and thick rubber wires you have to put up with at charging stations? Well, Volkswagen is making a robot just for that job.
Volkswagen Will Use Robots to Automatically Plug Electric Cars into Chargers 1 photo
Photo: screenshot from Youtube
When we say that Volkswagen is making a robot, what we mean is that they're using one that already exists and adapting it for the job. It's called the KUKA LBR iiwa, and it's a big arm with seven joints built for precise work. You might know it as the thing that holds the steering wheel on that weird Rinspeed BMW i3 concept.

On his part, the EV driver is supposed to park his car within defined borders so that the charging port aligns in a target area of 20 x 20 centimeters. A camera then determines the exact position of the port and the iiwa robot arm comes in with the charger. It sounds a bit complicated, reminding us of the docking procedure from Interstellar. And couldn't they just develop a better induction charging system instead?

This robot arm idea is connected to a bunch of others Volkswagen has for its future EVs. For example, they're supposed to park by themselves, which means that when the charging is done, the robot will disconnect the cable, and the car can drive away. With this in place, charging spots will never be occupied pointlessly.

As long as we're getting a 500 kilometer (310 miles) battery, we don't care that robots are taking over the world.

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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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