Autonomous solar-powered docking station for quadrotor drones–Design and testing

In recent years, rapid progress has been observed in autonomous docking stations for drones. However, the existing systems are often dependent on external power supplies. To achieve long-term autonomy in outdoor conditions, such stations should be powered by renewable energy resources. This paper contributes to the literature by presenting the concept, detailed design, realization, and tests of a prototype of a networked system of a set of autonomous docking stations powered by solar arrays. The prototype of the system was developed, including two docking station versions: stationary and portable. The solution is highly customizable and scalable. Due to the use of solar radiation, the system can operate continuously for several months with minimum human involvement. The drone landing is realized using visual servoing. The custom-made quadrotor named DKT.2 is positioned on the landing pad using an active aligning mechanism. The outdoor experiments proved that the system is operational and might be used in monitoring missions.