Drone Base Station Alignment and Battery Swap Automation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Inventory management in storage sites, such as warehouses, is labor-intensive due to misplaced items occupying space and requiring manual relocation, and power management is a challenge for autonomous systems.
Innovation Solution
A base station with a parking plate, pushers, grippers, and alignment sensors to secure drones, along with a battery swapping system for efficient battery management, including chargers and a battery pack carrier to facilitate automated battery swapping and charging.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If manual inventory management is used, then flexibility and adaptability are maintained, but labor intensity and time consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The base station system is divided into distinct functional modules: a parking plate for drone reception, pushers for positioning, grippers for securing, alignment sensors for detection, and a separate battery swapping system. This segmentation allows each component to perform its specific function independently, reducing overall system complexity while enabling automated operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The base station integrates multiple functions into a single platform: drone reception, positioning, securing, alignment detection, battery removal, and battery swapping. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate systems for each task, thereby reducing overall device complexity while maintaining high automation capability.
2Reliability
If battery charging is performed without temperature control, then energy consumption is reduced, but battery safety and reliability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The base station incorporates temperature sensors that continuously monitor the temperature of batteries during charging. This feedback mechanism allows the system to detect temperature changes and adjust cooling operations accordingly, ensuring battery safety while optimizing energy consumption by activating cooling only when necessary.
Solution Approach 2:
The cooling system is pre-positioned and ready to activate before battery charging begins. This preliminary preparation ensures that temperature control is immediately available when needed, preventing overheating and ensuring battery safety without requiring excessive energy consumption during the charging process.
3Manufacturing precision
If drones are not precisely aligned, then positioning time is reduced, but battery swap accuracy and charging reliability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system replaces manual positioning with an automated mechanical system consisting of pushers that automatically adjust drone position, and a gripper that precisely secures the drone. This mechanical automation achieves high positioning accuracy without requiring extensive manual alignment time.
Solution Approach 2:
The alignment sensor automatically detects whether the drone marker is aligned with the reference location and provides feedback to the control system. This self-service alignment detection eliminates the need for manual alignment verification, achieving precise positioning quickly and efficiently.
4Reliability
If battery packs are not securely held, then device complexity is reduced, but charging reliability and power transfer efficiency deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The battery latch mechanism is designed as a separate, dedicated component that extracts and isolates the function of securing battery packs. This dedicated latch mechanism simplifies the overall system design by focusing on a single function (secure holding) rather than integrating multiple functions into a complex unified system.
Data Source
AI summary
A base station may include a parking plate on which the drone is to be landed. The base station may include a plurality of pushers slidable on the parking plate, the plurality of pushers configured to push the legs of the drone to move the drone towards a reference location on the parking plate. The base station may include a gripper carried by the parking plate, the gripper configured to removably secure the body of the drone in place relative to the reference location. The base station may include an alignment sensor carried by the parking plate and positioned at the reference location, the alignment sensor configured to detect whether a marker on the drone is in alignment with the reference location.