Autonomous charging station for rotary wing UAVs

Unmanned vehicles, which have developed and continue to develop depending on the technological advances in recent years, are vehicles that have the ability to act autonomously or with remote control. These vehicles can enter places where people cannot enter or where entering is dangerous for human life, and can perform operations such as surveillance, attack, physical interaction in these places. Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is an aircraft that can fly without the need for a human being and can operate autonomously or via remote control. UAVs can be used in mission flights such as border protection and surveillance. Mission flights made with the battery technologies used today can take a short time and prevent the effective use of the capabilities of UAVs. In order to overcome this, UAVs need to be charged during the mission flight. UAV charging stations have been developed for charging operations. In this thesis, a renewable energy supported charging station has been developed that allows autonomous charging of rotary wing type UAVs in mission or normal flights. Solar energy supported photovoltaic (PV) panels and accumulator batteries were used as energy sources in the station. During the development of the charging station, concept design, simulation applications and hardware tests were carried out. During the design studies, the general structure of the charging system, the design of the charging pad, electronic card designs and the charging tracking system were discussed. After the design studies, simulation studies were started. In the simulation studies, applications for photovoltaic panel, accumulator battery and UAV battery were carried out. After the simulation studies were successful, testing of the electronic equipment to be used in the charging station was started. The UAV, which landed on the charging pad, is charged over the charging pad, regardless of the landing direction and without any short-circuit situation with 100% success. Three different situations were considered in the tests for charging processes. In the first, it is discussed that the UAV is at the charging station and charging the UAV battery by obtaining energy from the PV panel. In the second, it is discussed that the UAV is at the charging station and charging the UAV battery by obtaining energy from the accumulator battery. In the third, it is discussed that charging the accumulator battery by obtaining energy from the PV panel. The response of the charging system in different current references during the charging processes is discussed and it has been observed that the system immediately and accurately responds to changes. Charging processes has been done successfully. An interface has been developed that will allow the cell information of the UAV battery to be monitored instantly during the charging processes.