Automated Battery Swap and Recharge to Enable Persistent UAV Missions
Name
How_Automated battery swap.pdf
Size
10.64 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
abb7e19ea8998329e1bb62b8161afcb5
Author(s)
Toksoz, Tuna
Redding, Joshua
Michini, Matthew
Vavrina, Matthew
Vian, John
Michini, Bernard J.
How, Jonathan P.
Date Issued
March 2011
Journal
Proceedings of the Infotech@Aerospace 2011
Publisher
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Citation
Michini, Bernard, Tuna Toksoz, Joshua Redding, Matthew Michini, Jonathan How, Matthew Vavrina, and John Vian. “Automated Battery Swap and Recharge to Enable Persistent UAV Missions.” In Infotech@Aerospace 2011. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2011.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
This paper introduces a hardware platform for automated battery changing and charging for multiple UAV agents. The automated station holds a bu er of 8 batteries in a novel dual-drum structure that enables a "hot" battery swap, thus allowing the vehicle to remain powered on throughout the battery changing process. Each drum consists of four battery bays, each of which is connected to a smart-charger for proper battery maintenance and charging. The hot-swap capability in combination with local recharging and a large 8-battery capacity allow this platform to refuel multiple UAVs for long-duration and persistent missions with minimal delays and no vehicle shutdowns. Experimental results from the RAVEN indoor flight test facility are presented that demonstrate the capability and robustness of the battery change/charge station in the context of a multi-agent, persistent mission where surveillance is continuously required over a speci ed region.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Aerospace Controls Laboratory
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2011-1405
