Ziggy is an autonomous robot designed for electric car charging that can find a parking space in a parking lot and reserve it for you. Once you arrive, it will settle next to you to recharge your electric car , cheerfully displaying advertisements or why not, sell various services, as an additional entrance for parking managers.
The Ziggy Charging Robot is an EV Safe Charge project , which aims to provide garages with a super easy, super flexible and economical way to charge electric cars without having to install charging points next to each parking lot. An investment that would be very costly for operators of parking lots with hundreds of parking spaces.
Basically Ziggy is battery pack equipped with front and rear lights, cameras on all sides and a band of safety sensors around the waist. It has four wheels, all steering, and an electric transmission that allows it to move around the parking lot. It should move autonomously, but there is no reason why it cannot be managed with a remote control from an operating station.
Electric vehicle drivers will book a Ziggy charge in advance and the system will send a robot to move to a vacant parking lot to wait and reserve a seat while the app guides the driver to the parking spot.
Apparently the robots have enough ground clearance to overcome bumps and a low center of gravity so they don’t tip over on ramps, so they should be able to move around in most parking lots. Once you arrive, Ziggy will exit the parking lot to let you in and, once parked, will position himself so that he is close to the charging socket.
At this point you get out of the car, grab the charging cable and connect it yourself. Tesla’s standalone charger promises to be HYPERLINK “https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/550297212769402881” able to plug the cable into the power outlet. We point this out because we are sure that such a function would be highly appreciated by those who have difficulty walking.
Ziggy will recharge your car using its own batteries, which are presumably large enough to provide a full charge to two or three cars at a non-sustained but still not super slow rate. When you return, you unplug, pay for the service through the app and the Ziggy will return to recharge.