We are looking to replace our current battery system on a mobile robot application. The main sticking point being: can we send signals between the charger and the BMS over wireless?
To summarize our current battery system:
We have a mobile robot with the batteries and BMS module mounted to the mobile robot.
The charger is stationary in the plant.
Our robot automatically detects it needs to charge the batteries and moves to the charger location
Our Traffic system will tell the robot it is at station and is clear to charge
The robot will extend a charge pad to connect our battery contacts to the charging leads
The robot closes a contactor to allow current to flow
The charger detects voltage at the charging leads and sends current
The BMS on the robot regulates charge and detects when charging is complete
When the BMS on board detects charging is complete, it sends a signal to the robot to open the contactor
Once the contactor is open, the charger turns off its current and the robot can continue its regular operation
Our current Charger will auto detect voltage across our battery contacts and start the charging process. The BMS system on the mobile robot monitors and regulates the state of charge and current the battery is receiving and shuts off the charge when it is complete.
Our current comms are done via CANbus but i know victron has TCP/modbus comms which would work too.
We are having difficulty with our victron supplier getting an answer if victron can support a function similar to this. The difficulty being that we have been told the BMS MUST have a direct connection to the charger. But we are hoping we can use our PLC as a gateway to wirelessly transmit the same messages from the BMS to the charger.
Can anyone tell me if this is possible? thanks!
