METHOD AND DEVICE FOR AUTONOMOUSLY PLUGGING A CHARGING PLUG INTO A CHARGING SOCKET OF A VEHICLE

Autonomously plugging a charging plug installed on a programmable robot arm into a charging socket of a transportation vehicle. The method includes a camera to locate the charging socket by image analysis of acquired images of the charging socket; determining pose data to determine a pose of the located charging socket using a PnP algorithm; moving the charging plug to an intermediate position; creating a depth image of the charging socket corresponding to the current position of the charging plug when the charging plug is in the intermediate position; performing a comparison between the determined depth image and a reference depth image corresponding to a reference position to determine a positional deviation between the current position of the charging plug and the reference position; moving the charging plug to a plug-in position; and plugging the charging plug into the charging socket from the plug-in position.