Autonomous drone battery management
AssigneeBrookhurst Garage, Inc.
InventorsYoung Joon Kim, Wonjae Lee, Kyuhwan Sim
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Embodiments relate to a drone and a base station. The drone is adapted to navigate a storage site and carry a swappable battery. The base station is adapted to receive the drone to perform a battery swap. As such, the base station may include charging ports to recharge the swappable battery and may be adapted to predict a return timing of the drone, charge a battery to a level in anticipation of the return timing, and subsequent to the drone returning to the base station, swapping the battery of the drone with the charged battery.
Claims20
A system comprising:
- an autonomous drone adapted to navigate a warehouse environment, the autonomous drone carrying a swappable first battery;
- and
- a base station for receiving the autonomous drone to perform a battery swap, the base station comprising one or more charging ports to recharge one or more batteries, the base station adapted to:
- predict a return time of the autonomous drone navigating the warehouse environment,
- charge a second battery to a battery level in anticipation of the return time, and
- swap the first battery carried by the autonomous drone with the second battery subsequent to the autonomous drone returning to the base station at the return time.
A method comprising:
- predicting a return time of an autonomous drone navigating a warehouse environment, the autonomous drone carrying a swappable first battery;
- charging, at a base station for receiving the autonomous drone, a second battery to a battery level in anticipation of the return time, wherein the base station comprises one or more charging ports to recharge one or more batteries;
- and
- swapping the first battery carried by the autonomous drone with the second battery subsequent to the autonomous drone returning to the base station at the return time.
A base station for receiving an autonomous drone to perform a battery swap, the autonomous drone adapted to navigate a warehouse environment and carrying a swappable first battery, the base station comprising:
- one or more charging ports to recharge one or more batteries;
- one or more processors;
- and
- one or more memories coupled to the one or more processors, the one or more memories storing one or more sets of instructions, the one or more sets of instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
- predict a return time of the autonomous drone navigating the warehouse environment;
- cause a repowering unit to charge a second battery to a battery level in anticipation of the return time;
- and
- cause the repowering unit to swap the first battery carried by the autonomous drone with the second battery subsequent to the autonomous drone returning to the base station at the return time.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.