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Hi everyone,
My research group is using turtlebots in long experiments (24+ hours) in a small space (middle size room). Our biggest problem is stopping the process and having to swap lipo batteries during these experiments.
Did anyone had a similar problem and found a solution that wouldn’t distrupt the Turtlebot by a dragging or a twisting power cable during experiments ?
Turtlebot which version? v2 is large enough to carry a hydrogen fuel cell =) The smaller ones would be a problem… Can you develop a laser beam powering solution? 
Or maybe some wireless (Qi) chargers could be used if the turtlebots can stop from time to time? Or even some docked charging process?
What is the power draw of your robots?
Ok, with burger you are pretty limited. You could try building custom battery packs using 18650 or 21700 batteries, but that’s no easy task. And that will help you just a little over the original lipol battery (max 2x or 3x longer battery life, I estimate).
If you need to extend the endurance 10x or so, I think that a custom docking solution is the best way to go. Either you find a way to do an automated hotswap of the empty battery for a fully charged one (I’d really like to see a video of that!), or you’ll have to do at least automated docked charging (this should be easier). To get the charge times as short as possible, you can try buying a higher-C battery and charge it with the maximum current it can withstand. Yes, the battery will not like it, but if you’re okay disposing it after <100 charge cycles, this might be the best thing to do.
Thank you! I will look into these.
Hotswap might be cool 
