| Project Reference: | ITP/054/21LP |
| Project Title: | Thermal Management Technologies for Robots Work at Sub-zero Temperature |
| Hosting Institution: | LSCM R&D Centre (LSCM) |
| Abstract: | In cold-chain logistic, the working environment may go down to -20C which make it difficult for human workers. Special low temperature grade machinery are needed to operate at such low temperature condition. AMR and AGV are widely used in nowadays warehouse. It can increase efficiency by its automatic sorting capability and can also work 24hrs per day. Special low temperature grade AMR and AGV is not common in current market (Annex 5) and the aim of this project is to develop some thermal management technologies which is essential to enabling AMR and AGV to run at subzero temperature environment. A warm electronics box (WEB)(Annex 1) will be developed in this project. The purpose of WEB is to keep the main controller of the robot at a suitable operating temperature, preventing humidity and condensation. Aerogel material will be applied to the WEB as an insulator. Thermal electric cooler (TEC) will be used to control WEB temperature and gold foil will be deployed to prevent radiation of heat by reflecting heat inside the WEB. For components such as battery and motor which are outside the WEB, smart blanket (Annex 2) will be developed in order to keep temperature warm (Annex 3). Heat filament and reflective foil will be integrated to aerogel composite material and an embedded controller is used to control the temperature of the blanket. Temperature data will be sent to the robotic operating system (ROS) for monitoring and control. To further enhance thermal management, the WEB temperature and motor temperature can be raised by a special control method through a special software. A ROS node (kind of software package) will be developed to monitor the WEB temperature. If the temperature is too low, it can be raised by increasing the CPU workload besides using the TEC. This can warm up the circuit from inside instead of the external TEC. Another ROS node will monitor the motor temperature and inject controlled current to the motor coil in order to raise the core temperature. A sample robot platform will be built to show the effectiveness of the developed technologies and performs a site trial in a cold warehouse. |
| Project Coordinator: | Dr Ka Lun FAN |
| Approved Funding Amount: | HK$ 2.61M |
| Project Period: | 1 Mar 2022 - 31 May 2023 |
