That may look like a Ferris wheel but it acts a battery replacement station for small robots. The marXbot heads to the battery station when it gets low on juice. Once in the cradle, arms on each side hold the bot in place while the low battery is sucked out and a fresh one from the 15-slot carousel is inserted. The robot doesn’t power down but relies on stored electricity from some large capacitors during the changeover. See it happen after the break.
A while ago we saw a robot that could plug itself into a wall outlet. That’s great because the robot doesn’t have to return to a charging station, but it still has to wait for its battery to top off. With a few strategically placed battery stations it’s easy to keep a robot up and running with almost no down time for a battery swap.
