Electric Vehicles
Robots will only be enhanced by the gradual roll out of Electric vehicles, supplanting existing Internal Combustion Engine and Hybrid Engine Cars. There have been many examples of them, but most have ended up being silly looking concept cars, and really should have been made with exactly the same look and feel of a standard boring car, with only the difference in what’s under the bonnet - until that point, we cannot expect a large uptake of them.
Companies like Tesla, Toyota and Honda have commercialised on it. The Toyota Prius is an interesting compromise on the concept as well.
What does this mean to robots (and builders)?
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Better batteries - battery sizes, and costs will come down immensely when they are used in vehicles. Look at the progress created by the mobile phone and PDA market. The days of standard battery sizes being the only choice have gone. While AA is convenient in purchasing, it is large and inefficient compared to some other formats. For big robots, big EV batteries will greatly enhance them - and we are guaranteed to see a generation of battle bots and others based on them. Fuel Cell technology is being pushed now, with a motorbike running on it, and even mobile phone companies jumping on board.
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Better Motors - EV’s are based on electric DC motors. This means large DC motor technology may be enhanced as they are mass produced in the sizes and efficiencies needed for EV’s. Expect to see these replace washing machine/wheelchair motors in robots. Did you know there was recently a car that could drive over huge ranges on a single AA battery?
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An old EV would have great Salvage potential - as they also will have some superb control and power management electronics.