Mobile Autonomous Energy Station with Battery Swapping for Agricultural Robotics: Design and Commercialization Prospect

Abstract

Innovation is a major driver of progress across all sectors, including agriculture, while intellectual property, particularly industrial property, plays a central role in supporting both innovation and economic development. The successful commercialisation of industrial property can contribute to economic growth by encouraging investment, creating new employment opportunities, and enabling the development of innovative products and services. This paper investigates the commercial potential of a novel autonomous, mobile, and environmentally sustainable energy station created at the Estonian University of Life Sciences. The process requires securing industrial property rights and managing them appropriately through the necessary legal procedures, followed by the initiation of technology transfer from academia to industry. In this case, the transfer takes place from a university to a commercial company. To facilitate commercialisation, a licensable technology portfolio must be prepared around the core licensing asset, which may include patents, utility models, and know how. In addition, the key value propositions of the product or technology must be clearly defined. The proposed mobile energy station consists of a solar power unit, operating as the primary non dispatchable source, with a maximum total output of 6.82 kW, a biomethane powered generator serving as a secondary dispatchable source, an energy storage system with a total capacity of 14.4 kWh, and a rapid battery swapping and charging system for an agricultural robot. By combining solar energy with generator support, the system is able to maintain continuous operation even in unfavourable weather conditions. The battery swapping and charging mechanism includes a platform alignment system, a motor driven trolley for battery transfer, and an automated locking and unlocking solution. The entire station is automated and managed by a programmable logic controller together with several embedded microcontrollers. The central SIMATIC PLC supervises the main control processes, including solar tracking drive operation, battery state of charge monitoring, generator control, and wireless communication with approaching robots.