Design of UAV Autonomous Charging Pad for Surveillance

Abstract

The conventional unmanned aerial vehicles have limited supply of power due to which they are grounded after designated hours of flight. In this paper, the autonomous charging of UAVs is proposed, developed, implemented to increase the battery charging and operational life. The development of automated charging system for UAVs is achieved by utilizing the solar based charging system by means of charging stations marked throughout the route of a UAV. The drone, according to the predefined programming, evaluates its charging level and when the level drops below the set threshold, it lands on a landing site. The UAV can charge itself through contact-based charging functionality without a human's interference. This allows the UAVs to stay in flight for longer periods of time and does not requires intervention of humans to change the battery pack. This will increase the efficiency in terms of surveillance and allows the legal agencies carrying out surveillance to maintain their cover and achieve footage which might have been lost while landing the UAV to change the battery pack. This system can perform surveillance to be carried out by a single UAV as it does not rely upon human's support for the supply of power. The improvement in the battery life allows UAVs to hover for longer hours thus avoiding the risk of crash landings and damage to the UAVs.