Autonomous Maintenance and Health Monitoring of Rechargeable Batteries

Rechargeable batteries self discharge while in storage, and when allowed to remain at an extremely low state of charge for a long period of time, can be damaged permanently and then must be discarded. The USMC finds it far too costly and impractical to perform manual maintenance recharges every 3 to 6 months on the millions of rechargeable batteries in its inventory. In response to their requirement for an innovative means to perform autonomous maintenance and health monitoring of rechargeable batteries, Techshot, Inc. developed a concept for an Autonomous Battery Management System (ABMS) during its Phase I research project. ABMS is a fully-integrated, stable platform for storing and automatically charging rechargeable batteries safely in a warehouse environment. ABMS is easily expandable and stackable to accommodate various battery lot sizes. Personnel can query the State-of-Charge (SOC) and State-of-Health (SOH) of every battery with minimal effort. Moreover, ABMS technology is adaptable to any type of rechargeable battery used by the military, and is expected to be low enough in cost to make it disposable. During Phase II, Techshot will finalize the ABMS design, fabricate fully operational prototypes, and perform laboratory tests to validate performance characteristics, while planning for full-scale production.