Hawk's Nest

Inspiration

In an increasingly drone-prevalent world, the need for easy, accessible charging for any drone is becoming more and more important. The ability to 3D print a charger that can then be used by anyone enables longer drone travel and creates a larger use case for drones.

Application

One application of this technology is in 3rd world countries. The drone can be sent out with a charging nest connected to a solar panel. After dropping the charging nest, it can return to the owner to pick up another one. It can then nest hop, traveling back and forth between nests to charge and eventually creating a large network of solar powered charging nests.

Another use is as a charging array for a large fleet of drones, for example at a wind farm. The drones can be fully automated with limited human interference by going out for inspection and returning to a charging nest when battery levels are low.

What it does

We CADed and 3D printed a charging base and corresponding drone charging port attachment that create a wired connection when nested. When nested an Arduino on the drone will send charging and personal information to the Intel Edison in the base. This information is then used to post to a webserver the charging status of the drone.

WARNING Does not protect against butterfly nets

What's next for Hawk's Nest

Hawk's Nest can be both scaled up in size and be actually implemented with different drones.

Built With

• arduino