As drone applications get closer to production level for things such as beyond line of sight (BLOS) for inspections and delivery, the problem of batteries for electric drones comes up. But just like the electric car has been able to advance from turn of the century electric cars with limited range, to Tesla new models with most major car manufacturers offering ranges of 200 miles and growing, drones are coming along as well. While we think that this might be an opportunity for technology such as hydrogen with companies like MMC leading the way to finally hit prime time. Batteries are not going away anytime soon.
Here is a short video that shows a very crude prototype of some ideas of for quick and automated swaps of drone batteries. Almost like a video of early robots. Think of where they are now.
The creators write that this project was built by Cole Spooner, Sam Copeland, and Shamsuddin Rehmani. “The module is added on to the drone to house the battery in a custom battery casing. Freshly charged batteries may be replaced by the swapping station, with electrical connection established by the banana connectors inside the module seen through the transparent top.
All components were designed in SolidWorks and fabricated with the resources of the UBC Engineering Physics Project lab. This includes 3D printing, waterjet cutting, laser cutting, and aluminum extrusion. ”
While maybe not quite ready for prime time, it does show a direction of a concept that can be used for automated battery swaps.