Inductive Position Sensing of Power Cable for Autonomous Vehicle Navigation

This paper presents the development of a suite of sensors to locate a lightly buried cable for an autonomous vehicle. The sensor was designed as part of an Autonomous Electric Hauler system (AEH) that is to follow a power cable that will power inductive charging stations for the robot. The AEH was proposed to address the increasing concerns related to conventional hauler trucks including (i) rising fuel and labour prices, (ii) stricter ventilation regulations of the underground mines, and (iii) the significant increase in operating cost of a mine site. We present investigation of various sensor configuration including Ø60mm coil 25 turns, Ø90mm coil 25 turns, Ø115mm coil 50 turns and 150mm×80mm coil 25 turns. The 150mm×80mm coil was found to perform best with a sensing range of up to 165mm. With five receiver coils and four transmit coils, the power cable was able to be located.