Perpetual Power Comes for AMRs

Mobile robots have offered plenty of operational efficiencies over traditional manpower for warehouse operators. Quicker pick times, less downtime, and more overall efficiency are just a few of the benefits. However, even robots need to recharge their batteries.

But, maybe not for much longer. A Be’er Sheva, Israel-based company believes it has a solution to offer continuous motion for robots and it is now launching in the United States to prove that point.

CaPow, which describes itself as a “provider of perpetual power solutions for robotic fleets,” announced its expansion to the U.S. this morning, and will work with JLC Robotics, a robotic distributor and supplier, will help deploy CaPow’s power delivery system.

“The charging systems on the market today have built-in limitations and inefficiencies,” explained Mor M. Peretz, CEO and co-founder of CaPow. “To charge a robot, it needs to stop working, costing an operation time and impacting its workforce, and this has made achieving the full potential of mobile robots impossible. With perpetual power in motion, we are creating opportunities and use cases for mobile robots that simply hadn't even been considered previously.”

CaPow’s solution is plug-and-play, meaning any autonomous mobile robot is a potential fit. CaPow’s Genesis delivery system provides power to robots while on the go, eliminating the need for the robot to stop working to charge.

The system also does not use lithium-based batteries, eliminating these materials from the workspace, CaPow said. This also reduces weight of the robot, potentially increasing carrying capacity, and prevents temperature impacts, opening up operation in colder environments with minimal impact.

The Genesis system utilizes “stickers” to create the power for the robots. According to CaPow, “the receiver can be integrated either in parallel with existing batteries and extend their lifecycle, or with CaPow’s own powerpack to entirely replace batteries.”

From there, double-shielded, extra-thin sticker antennas are placed over the robot. These are customizable and can be placed anywhere on the robot. Similarly, floor stickers are located throughout the building (CaPow uses a floor planner app to identify the ideal location for the floor stickers) and as the robot travels over the floor stickers, it receives a power boost through wireless energy flow.

"We are honored to be partnering with CaPow. Their vendor-agnostic perpetual power solution for mobile robot fleets is a true game-changer,” said Jamie Callihan, president of JLC Robotics LLC. “Since CaPow Genesis solves so many of our clients' problems at once, we are already seeing a huge demand for it. There's nothing else like this on the planet and for us to say we are excited to share CaPow with our clients would be an understatement.”