Design and Validation of a Wireless Drone Docking Station

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel wireless drone docking station with three charging modules, demonstrating efficient power transfer and successful drone landing and recharging in practical tests.

Contribution

Introduction of a wireless drone docking station with three modules, analyzing transfer efficiency and practical implementation for autonomous drone recharging.

Findings

Maximum power transfer of 96.5 W

Power transfer efficiency of 56.6%

Successful drone landing and recharging tests

Abstract

Drones are increasingly operating autonomously, and the need for extending drone power autonomy is rapidly increasing. One of the most promising solutions to extend drone power autonomy is the use of docking stations to support both landing and recharging of the drone. To this end, we introduce a novel wireless drone docking station with three commercial wireless charging modules. We have developed two independent units, both in mechanical and electrical aspects: the energy transmitting unit and the energy receiving unit. We have also studied the efficiency of wireless power transfer and demonstrated the advantages of connecting three receiver modules connected in series and parallel. We have achieved maximum output power of 96.5 W with a power transfer efficiency of 56.6% for the series connection of coils. Finally, we implemented the system in practice on a drone and tested both energy transfer and landing.