Power Outlet sensor or detector
FRIenDS
I am working on a project where I need to find an electrical outlet. Can
any please point me to the right direction or give me some idea how this
can be done.
Any help will be appreciated.
Thank you!
Ky Le
Laurence Dishman
You'll need to generate a very fast (ie: 10 nSec) rather high voltage
(around 50 volts) pulse on the electrical line. Then time the return
(reflected) pulse(s) with a high speed oscilloscope. Pulses will be
reflected from any discontinuities in the electrical network. The
pulse return times will be a function of the wire run distance from
the generator.
N. Thornton
>
> I am working on a project where I need to find an electrical outlet. Can
> any please point me to the right direction or give me some idea how this
> can be done.
Torture the staff? perhaps if you give us a clue...? We're not mind
readers you know.
Regards, NT
FRIenDS
sorry for not being clear!
The bulk of my project is to enhance the robot such that it will detect
when its power source is running low. In case the power source (battery)
is low, it will find an electrical outlet and plug itself in for
recharge. It should able to detach itself once the battery is fully
charge again.
The problem I am having is finding the electrical outlet. Note: The
outlet have no homming signal. Potentially, there may not be any load in
the adjacent outlet. I want to design a component that will communicate
with the robot as to the where about of the electrial outlet.
Please post any advice or reference that you may have. I it is not
clear, please send me a note to k...@ee.ryerson.ca
Thank you!
Ky Le
big...@meeow.co.uk (N. Thornton) wrote in
news:a7076635.02111...@posting.google.com:
N. Thornton
> Hello,
>
> sorry for not being clear!
>
> The bulk of my project is to enhance the robot such that it will detect
> when its power source is running low. In case the power source (battery)
> is low, it will find an electrical outlet and plug itself in for
> recharge. It should able to detach itself once the battery is fully
> charge again.
>
> The problem I am having is finding the electrical outlet. Note: The
> outlet have no homming signal. Potentially, there may not be any load in
> the adjacent outlet. I want to design a component that will communicate
> with the robot as to the where about of the electrial outlet.
>
> Please post any advice or reference that you may have. I it is not
> clear, please send me a note to k...@ee.ryerson.ca
>
> Thank you!
> Ky Le
Hi. Now I understand :)
Its not my area of expertise, but why not. Someone else'll correct me
if necessary.
1. rf signal with direction finder
2. IR signal with d.f.
3. no signal with map of where it is held in robot
4. robot goes round the perimeter when low, it will soon reach the
socket.
5. largish plate on floor with power contacts on: each time robot
happens to cross the plate it stops and tops up.
6. white lines on floor leading to socket.
7. Solar panel on top of robot.
8. power wire all round perimeter: robot only has to bump into wall to
charge. Use sprung contacts to maintain contact.
8. 100kV supply above robot such that when robot goes under supply,
air gap is reduced and supply arcs to robot, powering it. And other
silly ideas.
Again, with no more info, its difficult to make any real suggestions.
Regards, NT
(a.c.holmes)
i have one question.
What is the range required for instance is the robot to be contain within
one room if so than it is not a problem using IR and such but if it moves
from room to room than you may need something more sophisticated or a
charging point in each room
Alan
"FRIenDS" <ophe...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
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Keith Mc.
> news:Xns92C2C56E73D...@66.185.95.104...
> > Hi,
> >
> > I am working on a project where I need to find an electrical outlet.
> > Can any please point me to the right direction or give me some idea
> > how this can be done.
> >
> > Any help will be appreciated.
> > Thank you!
> > Ky Le
It depends on if you're looking for a mark free outlet or not.
There are several levels of method, depending on how much "prep"
you are allowed. If you simply want CHARGING ability, that is
a different question.
1) Docking station: This is the easiest of all. No plugs involved.
Charging station consists of a segmented plate, with alternating
pattern of A and B connections in two dimensions, checkerboard style.
Behind it, on a vertical plate, is a "flower" pattern of radial lines.
A simple crosshairs works fine. The base plate is fed a low voltage
current AC, via a current limited power brick.
The robot when "thirsty" now hunts for a radial line retroreflective
pattern, and moves toward it. (This is how the insect / flower
partnership does it. Radial lines from a single point ALWAYS look
the same at ANY distance/magnification, and act as an excellent
centering mechanism for steering feedback.)
The robot's wheels are electrically isolated from the robot
chassis and each other. Approach the flower. When you detect
a voltage differential between any wheel pair, stop. Rectify
the voltage through your wheels, and charge your batteries.
Once charged, disable the "seek the flower" behavior and off you go.
2) Attaching to a MARKED standard plug (medium difficulty):
Use retroreflective tape (ala "reflexite") to either mark a
crosshairs with the plug as the center. Use an X-Z servo pair
four-cell tracker to acquire the crosshairs. Approach using
a distance sensor. The trick here is to end up SQUARE to the plug,
or have a compliant probe that can accommodate angled approaches.
When you're close to the wall, you can sweep your distance sensor
left and right to figure out if you're square to the wall or not,
or use a pair of left and right "wall feelers" to correct your
approach. Use the crosshairs to adjust the height of the probe
with a four bar mechanism (parallelogram), and plug in.
Another good marker would be a cheap neon nightlight. It flashes
a well known color at your local line frequency (50 or 60 Hz,
typically depending on your location). Put it in the top outlet,
hunt on it, slow your approach based on a distance to wall sensor,
and plug in right under it. Having the sensor and plug the spacing
you need vertically allows your sensor to simply try to contact
the neon light, and you're in.
3) Raw outlet (toughest). If it is not "marked" in some way as
in #2 (heck, use UV florescent paint if need be that's invisible
in visible light) you're now in the realm of pattern recognition
and vision systems, not cheap for the average hobby robot.
It HELPS if you know SOMETHING about the outlet, such as if
it is ALWAYS at a certain height, or ALWAYS appears at some fixed
distance feature of the room, such as "three feet from a room corner".
If you do NOT have at LEAST a known altitude range, you're simply
going to have to cruise the room perimeter at some known distance,
looking sideways trying to find SOMETHING that looks "socketish"...
<grin>
Good luck.
- Keith Mc.