UNIDOCK: A Cloud-Orchestrated Autonomous Charging Dock for Continuous Quadcopter UAV Operations

There has been a rise in the use of UAVs, especially quadcopters, in defense, agricultural, delivery and surveillance applications. The current UAV applications are limited by the manual charging requirements. The current solutions include battery hot-swap and manual charging. UNIDOCK(Universal Charging Dock for Quadcopter UAV) aims to solve this problem by providing personalized charging for individual UAVS. Each UAV continuously monitors its SOC and upon reaching a predefined threshold value, it autonomously navigated to the nearest dock using GPS. The whole system is integrated with a cloud platform that stores the battery profiles and GPS coordinates of docks. The cloud backend, implemented using Supabase software enables real-time communication and monitoring of UAVs through a secure channel. The queuing algorithm implemented ensures proper charging discipline and minimize charging delays. The dock is provided with a programmable CC-CV charging system to ensure proper charging of LiPo batteries, and the BMS(Battery Management System) ensures that all cells of the LiPo battery are equally charged. A threshold of 85% SOC was set where the transition from CC-CV operation was verified using MATLAB simulation which confirmed safe and effective LiPo battery charging. A dock assigning algorithm was developed to coordinate multiple UAVs by computing the shortest path based on straight line distance and remaining SOC. UNIDOCK aims to provide a cost effective, reliable, and sustainable solution to existing charging problems. The future improvements include better efficiency modules, and an auxiliary solar-powered source.