Integrated prognostic health monitoring of battery health in ground robots

Batteries are critical components in both manned and unmanned systems. In applications such as explosive ordnance disposal, loss of electrical power can put the operational team in imminent danger if the system must be retrieved from the field. The Applied Research Laboratory at Penn State, in conjunction with John Deere and Applied Perception, Inc., has recently completed a research program to install, test and evaluate the performance of a battery prognostics system onboard an unmanned ground vehicle. Battery prognostic health monitoring provides accurate assessment of battery state of charge (how much charge is left), state of health (what's wrong with the battery), and state of life (how many charge cycles remain). This paper describes the application of battery prognostic health monitoring technology to a robotic platform - a tele-operated John Deere Gator. The paper describes the implementation and effectiveness of battery prognostic health monitoring as well as overall UGV power utilization and management. The paper also describes the impact of power health monitoring on operations, mission planning, maintenance and support, and logistics by showing its effect in several operational scenarios. The program was funded under the sponsorship of the National Center for Defense Robotics (NCDR).