Kiwi Charge — Autonomous EV Charging Robot

Kiwi Charge addresses the last-mile friction in EV adoption: plugging in. The robot autonomously navigates to a parked vehicle, identifies the charge port using computer vision, and physically connects the appropriate charging connector — NACS or CCS — without any driver interaction.

The mechanical design of the end effector and connector flange was a central engineering challenge, requiring precision tolerancing for reliable mating across real-world charge port variations and orientations.

Custom end effectors were designed in SolidWorks for both NACS and CCS connector standards. Each end effector integrates a force-compliant mounting flange that accommodates small misalignments during insertion — critical for real-world reliability where vehicles are never parked perfectly.

The flange design uses a passive compliance mechanism (floating mount with spring preload) to absorb lateral and angular offsets. Connector retention and release mechanisms were designed for repeatable actuation by the robot arm. All components were prototyped via 3D printing and iterated against physical connector samples before transitioning to machined aluminum for production-intent parts.

Successfully demonstrated autonomous connector mating with both NACS and CCS charge ports across multiple vehicle models. The end effector design achieved reliable insertion with offsets up to ±8mm lateral and ±5° angular misalignment.