Abstract
This article presents an exploratory study of an energy-autonomous robot that can be deployed on the Dutch dykes. Based on theory in energy harvesting from sun and wind and the energy-cost of locomotion an analytic expression to determine the feasible daily operational time of such a vehicle is composed. The parameters in this expression are identified using lab results and weather statistics. After an evaluation of the “Energy autonomous robot in the Netherlands” case, the results are generalised by looking at the effects of varying the assumptions. Based on this work, three conclusions can be drawn. Firstly, it is realistic to have an energy-autonomous walking dyke robot in the Netherlands. Secondly, the use of solar panels is probably not feasible if the amount of solar energy that is available is much less than assumed in the study. Finally, in this case study, the inclusion of a wind turbine typically offers a slight benefit. Furthermore, it gives a significant benefit in the months where the incident power of the sun is low, thus allowing a reasonable operational time during the winter.
This work was conducted as part of the ROSE project, which is financed by the Dutch Technology Foundation STW under grant 10550.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Betz, A.: Introduction to the Theory of Flow Machines. Pergamon (1966)
Gabrielli, G., von Karman, T.H.: What price speed?: specific power required for propulsion of vehicles. Journal of the American Society for Naval Engineers 63(1), 188–200 (1951)
Green, M., Emery, K., Hishikawa, Y., Warta, W., Dunlop, E.: Solar cell efficiency tables (version 40). Progress in photovoltaics: research and applications, pp. 606–614 (2012)
Greenman, J., Holland, O., Kelly, I., Kendall, K., McFarland, D., Melhuish, C.: Towards robot autonomy in the natural world: a robot in predator’s clothing. Mechatronics 13(3), 195–228 (2003)
Gregorio, P., Ahmadi, M., Buehler, M.: Design, control, and energetics of an electrically actuated legged robot. IEEE transactions on systems, man, and cybernetics. Part B, Cybernetics : a publication of the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society 27(4), 626–634 (1997)
Huleihil, M.: Maximum windmill efficiency in finite time. Journal of Applied Physics 105(10), 104908 (2009)
Ieropoulos, I., Greenman, J., Melhuish, C., Horsfield, I.: Ecobot-III-a robot with guts. In: ALIFE, pp. 733–740 (2010). https://mitp-web2.mit.edu/sites/default/files/titles/alife/0262290758chap131
Inglis, D.R.: A windmills theoretical maximum extraction of power from the wind. American Journal of Physics 47(5), 416 (1979)
KNMI: Jaaroverzicht van het weer in Nederland - 2010. Tech. rep., KNMI (2010)
KNMI: Jaaroverzicht van het weer in Nederland - 2011. Tech. rep., KNMI (2011)
KNMI: Jaaroverzicht van het weer in Nederland - 2012. Tech. rep., KNMI (2012)
KNMI: Jaaroverzicht van het weer in Nederland - 2013. Tech. rep., KNMI (2013)
Mart, A., Arajo, G.: Limiting efficiencies for photovoltaic energy conversion in multigap systems. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells 43(1996), 203–222 (1996)
Melhuish, C., Ieropoulos, I., Greenman, J., Horsfield, I.: Energetically autonomous robots: Food for thought. Autonomous Robots 21(3), 187–198 (2006)
Poulakakis, I., Smith, J., Buehler, M.: Modeling and Experiments of Untethered Quadrupedal Running with a Bounding Gait: The Scout II Robot. The International Journal of Robotics Research 24(4), 239–256 (2005)
Solbian: Solbian (2013). www.solbian.eu
Stine, W.B., Geyer, M.: Power From The Sun (2012). http://www.powerfromthesun.net/
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Dresscher, D., de Vries, T.J.A., Stramigioli, S. (2015). Applying Energy Autonomous Robots for Dike Inspection. In: Dixon, C., Tuyls, K. (eds) Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems. TAROS 2015. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9287. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22416-9_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22416-9_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-22415-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-22416-9
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)