Experimental Evaluation of Regenerative Braking Performance in a Small Four-Wheel-Drive Mobile Robot Under Variable Operating Conditions
Krishiv Chandra
03/09/2026
Electric and hybrid vehicles commonly use regenerative braking to improve energy efficiency, recovering kinetic energy during deceleration and converting it into reusable electrical energy. The concept has been extensively studied in large-scale vehicles, but far less research has examined how it functions in smaller robotic platforms under variable operating conditions. This study addresses that gap by investigating how regenerative braking affects energy recovery and efficiency in a 4WD mobile robot as speed, payload mass, and incline angle were varied. An INA219 current and voltage sensor, integrated with an Arduino Uno R3 for data acquisition, measured energy consumption and recovery throughout testing. Each of the three variables was tested at three levels with three repeated trials per condition, and every regenerative braking trial was compared against a non-regenerative control trial to isolate the effect of energy recovery. Across every condition tested, regenerative braking recovered measurable energy and improved efficiency relative to the control trials. Recovered energy also increased consistently as speed, payload mass, and incline angle increased, suggesting that energy recovery scales predictably with the amount of mechanical energy available. Rather than demonstrating improvements under only a single operating condition, the results showed consistent performance across all variables investigated. Collectively, these findings indicate that regenerative braking can improve energy recovery and efficiency in small mobile robotic platforms, pointing to its potential for broader use in energy-constrained robotic applications. In addition, this study provides a validated experimental platform that future researchers can use to further investigate regenerative braking at small scale.