Wireless Charging Moves Into Fleet Planning as Mobile Robot Deployments Grow

Charging strategy is becoming part of mobile robot fleet design. As deployments grow, where and how robots recharge can affect time in service, facility power requirements, maintenance work and the battery capacity a machine needs to carry. Ben Waters, CEO of WiBotic, says opportunity charging is gaining attention as larger fleets make trips to fixed charging bays a growing source of lost working time.

Ben Waters, CEO of WiBotic

Charging during a robot’s working loop

A common approach sends a robot to a charging station when its battery reaches a set threshold. Waters gives 20% as an example. That rule is simple to apply in a small deployment, but it can become inefficient as the fleet grows: a robot may have to cross a factory, navigate around other activity and leave an area where it could still be completing useful work.

Waters says the issue can emerge even with fleets of 20 to 40 robots. At that scale, repeated trips to central charging points can create a bottleneck and add downtime. Opportunity charging changes the placement and timing of charging. A robot can receive power where it naturally pauses between tasks, including during a short, roughly 10-second wait.

One brief stop contributes little energy on its own. Repeated across a fleet, though, these pauses can add charge often enough to keep robots operating for longer without leaving their normal work loops. That can help support near-continuous operation, depending on the tasks, charging locations and fleet requirements.

Waters argues that wireless power fits this pattern because robots can connect to a charging point without repeatedly making physical contact. Contact-based systems used at many more locations would increase the number of docking events and the maintenance burden across the fleet. Even durable contacts still need upkeep over time, he says.

For operators, the practical question is therefore not just how quickly a charger can refill a battery. It’s whether charging points can be placed at the pauses robots already make, and whether the fleet can use them without disrupting task flow. The benefit depends on coordinating charger locations with robot routes and operating patterns.

Make power and battery choices early

Waters recommends treating charging as a design input from the start. First, teams need to map the facility’s electrical outlets, check how many are available and confirm that their power ratings can support the planned chargers. Leaving this review until deployment can expose infrastructure limits after the robot and charging system have already been selected.

Battery capacity and charging rate are another linked decision. A robot designed for an eight-hour runtime may need a different battery and charging plan from one that tops up during regular pauses. Waters says these choices involve trade-offs, and designing for the largest battery or the fastest possible recharge can add capacity or cost that a charging strategy might make unnecessary.

Fast charging also deserves scrutiny against the battery maker’s data. Waters raises charging at 3°C as a point for teams to examine, asking whether they have checked what the battery manufacturer specifies about the effect on service life and whether that trade-off is justified for their use case. The interview doesn’t provide a general lifetime figure; the relevant answer depends on the battery and its stated operating conditions.

Maintenance completes the design picture. Charging equipment and its interfaces become part of the fleet’s support needs, and teams that postpone maintenance planning may encounter problems soon after deployment. Considering power access, battery requirements and upkeep together gives designers a clearer basis for choosing a charging approach.

Product changes target outdoor use and lower mass

WiBotic’s product direction reflects the range of places robots operate. The company has expanded into adjacent applications including floor care, medical carts and space, while Waters describes growth among its established robotics customers. He points to automotive mobile robots, outdoor inspection at energy substations and humanoid robots as areas of activity.

WiBotic has introduced an IP65-rated version of its 1 kW charger. When the company first released that power family a couple of years earlier, the charger was available in an IP20 enclosure. Waters says the IP65 version is intended for outdoor applications and can also suit indoor settings such as floor care, where dust and water are present.

The company is also developing smaller, lighter, high-power systems for drones, an area where Waters says WiBotic has worked for a long time. He sees similar design pressures in humanoids: added mass requires energy to move and balance, while the available space is limited. Reducing charger size and weight while maintaining useful power is therefore a relevant engineering goal for both types of machine.

Alongside work on compact systems, WiBotic is pushing the output of its existing products toward 3 kW. Waters describes these as active development areas rather than specifications of products already available. For fleet designers, the direction to watch is how higher power and smaller packaging fit the battery, thermal and installation requirements of each robot.

Charging data can help locate power problems

Waters also identifies charging data as a way to spot power issues. The interview excerpt doesn’t detail specific measurements or diagnostic features, but the operational value is clear: charging behavior can give teams another view of how robots and their power systems are performing. As opportunity charging spreads charging events across a facility, that information may become more useful for understanding fleet availability.

The larger shift is from treating chargers as accessories to planning them as part of the robot’s work cycle. Teams choosing a system will need to consider where robots pause, how facility power is distributed, what charging conditions mean for battery life and how equipment will be maintained. Those decisions can shape both the robot’s design and the number of hours it remains in service.