Battery Swapping Technology: Drones that Never Stop Flying
Battery power is an essential aspect for drones, which have to make an awkward tradeoff between the battery they carry, the amount of other, additionally valuable stuff they carry and how long they can stay airborne. Consumer drones account for about 33% of their overall mass in batteries, resulting in 20 to 25 minutes of flight time before you have to swap batteries. When aircraft have this problem, particularly military aircraft that need to stay on station for long periods, the solution is mid-air refuelling. This is much easier with liquid fuel rather than batteries. The big quadrotor, weighing 820 grams, carries its own 2.2 Ah lithium-polymer battery, with about 12 minutes of flight time. Each quadrotor weighs 320 g, including its own 0.8 Ah battery and a 1.5 Ah battery as cargo. The little ones can’t keep themselves in the air for long, but that’s okay, because as flying batteries, their job is to go from ground to the big quadrotor and back again.
