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Version: ROS 2 Jazzy

Battery Chargers

Wireless battery chargers are necessary attachments for a fully autonomous, self docking robot platform. These devices incorporate sensors that determine the quality of the charging position and orientation, status of the charging coil, and status of the stationary unit.

Wiferion Wireless Charger​

platform:
  can_bridges:
    - interface: vcan0
      enable_can_fd: false
      interval: 0.01
      use_bus_time: false
      filters: '0:0'
      auto_configure: true
      auto_activate: true
      topic_rx: vcan0/rx
      topic_tx: vcan0/tx
sensors:
  charger:
    - model: wiferion
      urdf_enabled: true
      launch_enabled: true
      parent: base_link
      xyz: [0.0, 0.0, 0.0]
      rpy: [0.0, 0.0, 0.0]
      ros_parameters:
        wiferion:
          canbus_dev: vcan0

Package and Setup​

The Wiferion Wireless Charger uses the wiferion_charger ROS 2 driver. The driver is open source, maintained by Clearpath, and hosted on GitHub. The packages is installed alongside the clearpath_robot package as a dependency.

The driver uses the clearpath_ros2_socketcan_interface to communicate with the CAN bus via ROS 2 topics. Therefore, a ROS 2 socket CAN bridge must be available to use the driver. Make sure to define a CAN bridge for the CAN interface connected to the Wiferion charger.

For more specifics on the way Clearpath's configuration system launches the wiferion_charger driver, see the Wiferion charger launch file and the default parameter file in clearpath_sensors.

CAN Device​

The can_dev ROS parameter must be set to the name of the CAN interface connected to the Wiferion charger.

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