A Hybrid Battery Charging Approach for Drone-Aided Border Surveillance Scheduling

This paper proposes a new method to extend the flight capability of drones in real time. The new method combines two wireless charging methods (stationary wireless charging systems and dynamic wireless charging systems) into a hybrid mode. The drones must frequently return to a ground control center to replace or recharge its battery due to the limited performance of batteries mounted in the drones. To reduce the need of returning to the center, stationary wireless charging systems and dynamic wireless charging systems have been proposed. However, a few drawbacks of the two systems include the needs of landing/stopping on the stationary charging systems and the uncertainty of charging efficiency over the dynamic charging systems. Hence, to resolve the current limitations, we propose the hybrid approach for extending drone flight duration in real time. A mathematical formulation model is proposed to decide an optimal installation location and operating time of the hybrid mode. A case study is conducted to illustrate feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method. Results from the case study show that we can lengthen the flight duration per charge from the initial launching point (30 min → 32–59 min), and if the value of charging efficiency of the dynamic charging systems is maintained above a certain level, the time spent on the stationary charging systems is significantly reduced (58 min → 22 min).