Autonomous Recharging of Aerial Vehicles

Autonomous Recharging of Aerial Vehicles: An Implementation of an Intelligent Charging Platform

Presenter: Joseph Haun

Co-Presenter(s):
Anthony Aboumrad, Alexander McGinnis

Presenter Status: Undergraduate student

Department: Engineering

Funding Source/Sponsor: Koret Scholars Program

Screenshot URL: https://drive.google.com/uc?id=16MCp1kh1_Is1hgXdFNqZy03gdYPZvMMD

Abstract:
Use of battery-powered unmanned aerial vehicles for recreational and commercial purposes has grown popular in recent years. Some companies have dedicated themselves to producing high-velocity racing UAV, high-altitude UAV for photography, and small UAV similar to RC airplanes. These companies, while focusing largely on recreational platforms, have created products capable of operating in many different environments to accomplish a variety of tasks remotely. Currently, these systems require a nearby human operator who is able to provide the maintenance, setup, and UAV battery substitutions needed for the particular application. Our research sought to implement a novel solution to the problem of limited UAV recharge autonomy - namely, an autonomous charging platform capable of executing both the controlled landing and subsequent wireless recharging of UAV without the need for a human operator.