Charging Became a Robotics Engineering Problem
The first limitation that seriously affected development time was not ROS or AI. It was charging.
The normal battery workflow is inconvenient for long engineering sessions, especially because the vendor guidance is not to operate the robot while it is charging.
That creates an awkward development loop:
develop
↓
battery gets low
↓
stop the robot
↓
charge
↓
lose the running development environment
↓
resume later
I investigated the extra battery connectors, the 12.6 V charging path, the main power input, possible BMS improvements, and whether the robot could be powered separately for stationary development.
The vendor guidance I received was effectively:
- do not run the robot while charging
- external DC operation is supported through the 12 V main-power connection
- use a supply capable of at least about 6 A
- disconnect the battery while using that external supply
- leave the charging path unused during external-power operation
- power the supply first, then the robot
That changed the plan.
Separate mobile power from development power
For long stationary sessions, I selected a Jesverty SPS-3010V bench power supply and the appropriate cabling so the robot can be powered at 12 V without consuming the battery.
The working model becomes:
MOBILE
battery → robot
STATIONARY DEVELOPMENT
bench PSU → robot
battery disconnected
This should make long SSH, ROS, camera, arm, and debugging sessions much more practical.
The more interesting result
The charging inconvenience quickly turned into broader questions:
- Can the power path be improved?
- Can main power eventually be switched safely under software control?
- Can charging state be detected?
- Can the robot autonomously dock?
- What would a reliable charging dock look like?
- Which parts could be fabricated or 3D printed?
A frustrating battery limitation became a future robotics project.
That feels like a useful pattern to preserve in this journal: the things that slow development down are often pointing at real engineering problems that production robots also have to solve—uptime, energy management, charging, safe switching, and recovery.