Automatic Battery Replacement System For UAVs: Analysis and Design

J Intell Robot Syst (2012) 65:563586
DOI 10.1007/s10846-011-9616-y
Automatic Battery Replacement System for UAVs:

Analysis and Design
Koji A. O. Suzuki Paulo Kemper Filho
James R. Morrison
Received: 15 February 2011 / Accepted: 15 June 2011 / Published online: 9 September 2011
Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011
Abstract Future Unmanned Aircraft Systems

(UASs) are expected to be nearly autonomous
and composed of heterogeneous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). While most of the current
research focuses on UAV avionics and control
algorithms, ground task automation has come to
the attention of researchers during the past few
years. Ground task automation not only relieves
This paper is largely reprinted from the paper of the

same title in the Proceedings of the International
Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems 2011
(ICUAS11), May 2011. The Proof of Theorem 1 and
reorganization leading to Section 5 are new.
K. A. O. Suzuki
Mechanical Engineering Department,
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
(KAIST), Daejeon 305-701, Korea
e-mail: suzuki@kaist.ac.kr
P. Kemper Filho
Electrical Engineering Department,
e-mail: p.k.f@kaist.ac.kr
J. R. Morrison (B)
Industrial and Systems Engineering Department,
e-mail: james.morrison@kaist.edu
URL: http://xS3D.kaist.edu
human operators, but may also expand the UAS

operation area, improve system coverage and enable operation in risky environments without posing a threat to humans. We propose a model to
evaluate the coverage of a given UAS. We also
compare different solutions for various modules
of an automated battery replacement system for
UAVs. In addition, we propose a ground station
capable of swapping a UAVs batteries, followed
by a discussion of prototype components and tests
of some of the prototype modules. The proposed
platform is well-suited for high-coverage requirements and is capable of handling a heterogeneous
UAV fleet.
Keywords Unmanned aerial vehicles UAVs
Autonomous consumable replacement
Service station Enabling technologies
Autonomy
1 Introduction
The United States Federal Aviation Administration (US FAA) defines an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) as a collection of Unmanned
Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), control station(s), command and control algorithms and equipment for
launch, recovery, communication and navigation
[1]. While many efforts have been directed to
the study of these components, there has been
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significantly less attention paid to the automation

of ground maintenance tasks. While such activities
may be relegated to humans, to achieve a UAS
with greater range, applicability and autonomy,
such efforts must be automated.
Initial ground breaking work in this area has
recently been conducted. In [2], the first prototype
of a battery recharge platform for UAVs was
developed to support the RAVEN UAS test bed.
To our knowledge, the authors in [3] are the first
to study and provide an analytic answer to the
question of whether a battery charging or replacement platform is preferable. They also developed
and compared various recharge station designs
and proposed a conceptual replacement platform.
Simultaneously and independently of [3], authors
of [4] developed the first prototype of a UAV
battery replacement system as part of their ACE
test bed. They also developed management software to support the process of operating UAVs
with such a platform and an off-UAV method to
deduce when a battery requires service. In [5],
and subsequent work (not yet published), a self
leveling platform that keeps its base parallel to
the ground and centers the UAV was developed.
The prototype efforts for UAVs follow related
work for ground based robots in [612] for battery
charging and [13, 14] for battery replacement.
There has also been some work to automate ground tasks for gas powered UAVs [15],
where UAV precision landing capability, automated capturing and centering mechanisms that
move UAVs to a proper refueling position were
tested.
Despite these advances, numerous opportunities remain. First, the analysis of [3] is based on
bounds so that there is an opportunity to tighten
the results. Second, while most of the proposed
solutions for ground based service stations rely
on homogeneous fleets of UAVs, it is anticipated
that the UASs of the future will be heterogeneous
[16]. Third, service stations should be robust to
environmental factors that compromise the integrity of UAV positioning systems; existing designs are intended primarily for laboratory based
test beds. Fourth, there is a need to consider
additional design choices for the components of
service stations to improve system reliability and
performance.
In this paper, we strive to address these needs

for battery operated UAV systems. The contributions and organization are as follows:
The paper develops Petri net models of battery charging and replacement systems that
enable a tight comparison between them.
(Section 2)
The paper develops and compares design options for the functional components of battery
replacement service stations. These attempt to
address the issues of fleet heterogeneity and
UAV landing control robustness. (Section 3)
The paper reviews and conducts operational
testing of key components of a system prototype. (Section 4)
Using estimates of the replacement platform
costs based on the design choices of Section 3,
we compare the cost of various platforms and
systems. (Section 5)
Concluding remarks are presented in Section 6

and future work is presented in Section 7.
2 Planning UASs
A Petri net can be considered a graphical tool
that may be used to describe distributed, concurrent, parallel, asynchronous, deterministic and/or
stochastic stepwise processes [17]. It is a bipartite graph, in which the nodes are divided into
transitions (T, represented by bars) and places (P,
represented by circles). The connection between
nodes is made by directed arcs, which connect
only a T to a P, or a P to a T, never P to P or T
to T. Tokens (usually represented by dots) travel
through the net. Whenever there is a token at the
input of all arcs leading to a transition, the transition fires, the tokens at the input are consumed
and a token is created at the output of each of the
outgoing arcs. The event of a firing can happen
concurrently and can overlap in time with other
firings so long there are enough tokens to fire
a transition. The location and number of tokens
at the start of the Petri net evolution is called
the initial marking. Times may be associated with
the transitions and places. Tokens entering a
node must wait for this duration before they are
released.
If there is only one output arc and one input

arc at any of the places of a given Petri net,
the network is called decision-free [18]. The
cycle time of a decision-free Petri net is straightforward to analyze without much computational
effort.
Figure 1 depicts Petri nets for a refill/recharge
and a replace system, where T F stands for the
time a UAV spends in the air, T R is the time it
spends at the service station and TC is the charging
time a battery requires to achieve full charge when
fully depleted. T I is the idle time allocated to each
UAV in one operation cycle. During this time,
the UAV simply rests and expends no energy.
It serves to adjust the system to lower coverage
requirements and can be as low as zero. There is
no duration associated with the places.
In the Petri net for the recharge platform on the
left of Fig. 1, the duration T R should be at least as
long as a battery charging time; the UAV remains
with the platform until its battery is fully charged.
In the Petri net for the replacement platform on
the right of Fig. 1, T R will be small relative to TC ,
Fig. 1 Petri Net model.

The left-hand side models
a refill/recharge system,
and the right-hand side
models a replace system
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since only a battery swap is required during the T R

duration.
In the initial marking of the replacement Petri
net, there are NUAV , NPLAT , (NBATT NUAV ),
NCGR tokens in the places labeled Ready to fly,
Platform ready for UAV, Battery charged,
and Chargers waiting for batteries, respectively.
These represent the number of UAVs (each with
a battery), exchange platforms, backup charged
batteries and battery chargers, respectively. In the
refill Petri net, the initial marking is the same as
in the replace Petri net for those places shared in
both nets (P1, P2, P3 and P4).
Since the resultant Petri nets are simple, analysis is rather straightforward. According to [18], the
system cycle time for a decision
free Petri net can

Ti
be obtained as max Ni , where i ranges over all
loops in the net, Ti is the sum of durations along
these loops and Ni is the number of tokens in
places in the loop initial marking. It is equivalent
to consider only simple loops.
There are four simple loops in the replacement
net: UAV loop (LUAV ), platform loop (LPLAT ),
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battery loop (LBATT ), and charger loop (LCGR ).

Defining:
T LUAV =
TF + TR + TI
,
NUAV
(1)
T LPLAT =
TR
,
NPLAT
(2)
T LBATT =
TC + T R
,
NBATT NUAV
(3)
T LCGR =
TC
,
NCGR
(4)
where NUAV , NPLAT , NBATT and NCGR are the

number of UAVs, platforms, batteries (total including those on UAVs and those on the platforms) and chargers, respectively.
The minimum cycle time (maximum performance) [18] of the system is:
TCYC = max(T LUAV , T LPLAT , T LBATT , T LCGR ).
(5)
Thus each transition fires on average once every

TCYC units of time.
System coverage is defined as the average number of UAVs in the air at a given time. Theorem 1
relates system coverage to the Petri net cycle time.
Theorem 1
CSYS =
=
CSYS =
TF
TC +T R
T F +T R +T I
R
, NTPLAT
, NBATT
, TC
NUAV
NUAV NCGR
t+
N
UAV

.
i=1
1
t
t
0
IUF AVi (t) dt,
F
where IUAV
(t) is the indicator that UAVi is in the
i
air at time t (its value is 0 or 1) and we assume the
NUAV UAVs are labelled UAV1 , ..., UAV NUAV .
ti +T
ti
F
IUAV
(t) dt,
i
1
(q T F )
(q NUAV )TCYC
= NUAV
Proof Since we have NUAV UAVs in the system,

the system coverage equals:
N
UAV

1
T
where ti t0 is the time of the firing of transition T F corresponding to the first launch of
UAVi once the periodic regime has been reached.
Since T = ( p K)TCYC = (q NUAV )TCYC , assuming FIFO consumption of the tokens from the
Ready to Fly place, U AVi will start and complete exactly q flights in the time interval [ti , ti +
T ]. Thus, the integral for each UAV will give
q T F . We have:
i=1

max
N
UAV

i=1
CSYS =
TF
TCYC
CSYS = lim
According to [19], decision-free Petri Nets,

such as those of Fig. 1, will become periodic with
period T after an initial transient duration (t0 ).
From [18], each transition fires on average every
TCYC units of time. Thus, one can conclude that
the period T = K TCYC , where K is the number
of firings of a particular transition during one full
period (any transition will do since they all fire
at the same average rate). Let T = ( p K)TCYC ,
where p is an integer such that p K = q NUAV ,
for q integer. (Clearly, such a p exists since p =
NUAV will give p K as some multiple of NUAV ; q
tells us exactly how many multiples.)
Now, since T is a multiple of the period T, we
can write
TF
TF
=
.
NUAV TCYC
TCYC
This concludes the proof.
Usually one of the loops will constrain TCYC ,

meaning that the resources of the other loops
are under-utilized (on stand-by). If we decide to
make the three loops period equal by changing
the variables under our control (e.g. the number
of UAVs, idle time, etc) we can optimize the UAS
to the desired specifications (or approach the
bounds obtained previously). As in [3], Eq. 5 and
Theorem 1 can be used to support platform design
by dictating required battery storage space, number of charge platforms and overall system speed.
Example 1 Consider a UAS consisting of 3 UAVs
and one exchange (replacement) platform with
T F = 15 min, T R = 1 min and TC = 85 min. Set
T I = 0. Let T S denote the duration of a UAV
operation cycle, that is, T S = T R + T F + T I =
16 min.
Let NUAV = 3, NBATT = 20, NPLAT = 1 and
NCGR = 16. For such a system, the replacement Petri net can be used to obtain T LUAV =
T F +T R +T I
R
= 5.333, T LPLAT = NTPLAT
= 1, T LBATT =
NUAV
TC +T R
C
= 5.059, and T LCGR = NTCGR
= 5.313.
NBATT NUAV
TF
Thus, TCYC = T LUAV and CSYS = TCYC = 2.8125
UAVs/unit time. If we want a lower coverage
with the same system, say 2.5,

Rwe can increase
N
CUAV
1 =2
T I . Setting T I = (T F + T R ) UAV
TGT
CSYS
min, we obtain TCYC = 6 min. We then have
CSYS = 2.5 UAVs/unit time.
3 Design Options
In this section we discuss design options for an
autonomous UAV battery replacement system
ground station. This station is to automatically
swap the depleted batteries of a UAV for a
recharged battery without human intervention.
Here, instead of tackling navigation control algorithm problems, we work with design parameters
to solve issues such as:
Guiding the UAV to the battery replacement

site,
Orienting the UAV in a desired direction,
Locking the UAV position on the station,
UAV-battery connections: extracting and
placing a battery in the UAV,
Battery transportation, and
Battery array recharging.
3.1 UAVs, Batteries and Charging

UASs composed of different types of UAVs are
of interest to both civil and military applications
[16]. It is desirable that service stations provide
service to as many different kinds of UAVs in
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the UAS as possible. This may serve to reduce

the number of ground stations and promote an
even spread of the coverage of a given UAS.
Since Lithium-polymer (Li-Po) battery-powered
UAVs are popular due to the high energy density
of Li-Po batteries [20], we elected to design a
system that can serve UAVs with two-cell and
three-cell Li-Po batteries. Li-Po batteries require
a balanced charger [20] and many of the commercially available hobby chargers are already designed to charge two-cell and three-cell batteries.
This decision primarily affects the geometry of
the electric terminals and minimizes charging logic
complexity.
A popular UAV employing this Li-Po battery
is the Lama V3/4 [21]. It was used in the Autonomous Control Environment (ACE) test bed
of [4]. The Lama V3/4 is a coaxial, small remote
control helicopter designed and manufactured by
E-Sky. It is primarily for hobbyists and is easy to
fly. The main rotor diameter is 340 mm, the body
weight is 230 g (with original equipment manufacturer (OEM) battery) and the OEM power supply
is a 2-cell Lithium Polymer battery pack (7.4V
800 mAh). Such UAVs are usually relatively inexpensive, simple, light and susceptible to weather
conditions.
The HoneyBee King 2/3/4 [22] is an example
of a UAV using a three-cell Li-Po battery. Following a more traditional helicopter design, the
HoneyBee King has a main rotor and a tail rotor
to control the UAV. The main rotor diameter is
600 mm, the body weight is 470 g (with OEM
battery) and the OEM power supply is a 3-cell
Lithium Polymer battery pack (11.1V 1000 mAh).
Such UAVs are typically more robust with greater
capability than their smaller counterparts but require more skill to control.
As seen in [3], systems with expensive UAVs
(including attached equipment) are better served
by battery replacement systems. Therefore, systems which are capable of swapping the batteries
of the UAVs are needed for larger, heterogeneous
UASs and we will focus on the design of service
stations for this purpose.
Despite very high energy density, Li-Po batteries require special care for recharging [20].
Cycle aging also reduces the maximum charge
capacity of a battery [20, 23]. These facts to-
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gether demand smart battery chargers to ensure

battery safety and maximal usability throughout the battery lifetime. Therefore, we elected
to use smart off-the-shelf battery chargers and
rely on the fully charged signal from such a
charger. The downside is that a small communication network between chargers and the main
control is needed. This approach is different than
the time-estimation approach used by [4], where
the charger is turned on for a given amount of
time, then turned off regardless of the real status
of the battery. However, the possibility of using
batteries at their maximum justifies the hardware
complexity of a smarter system. Not to mention
that time-estimation does not address the failure
of batteries, whereas a smart charger can identify
such a situation.
Figure 2 depicts the basic topology of the
communication network between the main control and chargers. Designing the micro-controllers
behind each charger and the main microcontroller to have a universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) or other equivalent
serial communication peripheral, one can design
a ring network very easily. When a battery is
ready or faulty, the charger responsible for that
battery sends such information addressed to the
main control. The main control can also request
status from any charger by just sending a packet
address to that charger. When a charger receives
a message which is not addressed to it, it forwards
it to the next charger. The main control never
forwards any message. In this fashion, the burden
of keeping track of the batteries is relieved from
Fig. 2 Communication network topology between chargers and main control unit
the main control unit; it can focus on battery

changing tasks and communication with the UAS
main control.
3.2 UAV Positioning Methods
Batteries are held in a specific position on the
UAV. To be able work with them, one should
position the UAV in a specific place after it has
landed or identify its location. Precision landing
systems were required in [2] and [4]. Kemper et al.
[3] focused on how to address small errors in landing by increasing the UAV capture area during
landing.
The design options presented in this paper assume that the ground stations are outdoors, where
weather conditions cannot be predicted. The focus
here is not on landing algorithms, but on how
to address UAV positioning after landing with
small error. While UAV navigation systems are
assumed to exist, we will allow landing position
error. The goal is to allow the UAV to reach
the location where battery swapping will be conducted, even if its landing position is non ideal due
to navigation errors, weather conditions, UAV
damage, etc.
The design options related to UAV positioning
are depicted in Fig. 3. Figure 3a shows a donut
shaped platform that increases the possible capture area of the UAV during landing. If the UAV
lands within the boundaries of the donut, it slides
and will be guided towards the center of the platform, where the battery change occurs. If it lands
outside, it will slide outward without damaging the
UAV.
To increase the area where the UAV can
land, we also considered flat surface designs. The
UAV simply lands and is guided toward a specific
location on the platform where the battery swapping occurs [3]. Figure 3b shows a UAV centering
mechanism in which four arms are pinned to four
different points in a flat surface. These arms lie at
different heights to avoid collision between each
other and can be actuated individually by one motor each or by one single motor using a pulley and
cable actuation to close the arms. To return the
arms to their original position, torsional springs
can assist. The top part of Fig. 3b shows four
arms in an open/resting state. After the arrival of
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Fig. 3 Design options for UAV positioning system
the UAV, the main controller closes the arms so

that the UAV is pushed towards the center of the
platform as shown in the bottom part of Fig. 3b.
A similar, but simpler and perhaps more reliable
concept is proposed in [5].
The design depicted in Fig. 3c is also based
on a flat platform with increased landing area to
accommodate landing errors. The target again is
to move the UAV to the center of the platform,
where battery swapping will take place. Instead
of solid arms, pulleys and cables are used. The
platform will have cleft guides radiating from the
center to the edge of the surface plate, where
slides will be placed (the six pairs of lines leading
from the central circle in Fig. 3c). These slides
can be moved radially, by radial actuation. Two
pulleys are placed on the interior of each slide and
two more pulleys are placed on the outward part
of the platform (in this case, a hexagon is used,
thus 12 pulleys are fixed on the outward part).
The cables pass through the pulleys in a way that
one motor can tension the pulleys, forcing them to

move radially towards the center of the platform,
while another motor causes cable tension to move
the pulleys outward. The outward resting position
can be seen on the top part of Fig. 3c. When the
UAV lands on the flat surface, the main controller
turns on the motor tensioning the cable of the
radially movable pulleys. The pulleys will then
slide towards the center of the platform, dragging
the UAV to the center position.
3.3 Skid Changes or Add Ons
In order to swap a UAV battery, there is a need
for a more dynamic battery-UAV coupling system, a fast battery capturing device as well as a
simple UAV positioning system. To achieve these
requirements, changes to the UAV are necessary, as original equipment manufacturer (OEM)
skids and chassis do not comply with the system
needs. For example, lets say that the UAV is
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being guided by four arms symmetrically pushing

the UAV towards a center platform as shown
in Fig. 3b. It will be more convenient for our
design if the geometric center of the UAV skids
and battery are aligned. There are two options if
the OEM UAV skids or chassis are not suitable.
Either new skids can be designed to fit our necessities or add on parts to the skids/UAV chassis can
be used. New skids may reduce weight, but may
cost more than adding extra parts. Using add ons,
the weight of the UAV will increase, but cost may
be lower. To change the skids or to make add ons
for it, certain issues should be considered:
The skid must support the UAVs weight and

keep the UAV balanced,
Skids modifications or add ons do not affect
the UAV payload significantly,
Skids must allow battery removal from the
UAV,
Skids must allow UAV to be locked in place
for battery removal/placement, and
Skid geometry must comply with the UAV
positioning method described in Section 3.
Figure 4 depicts three different skid configurations that can be used to guide the UAV to-
Fig. 4 Skid designs and add ons
wards the battery swapping site. On the left, an

add-on to the existing skids is proposed. It is a
disc of plastic material concentric to the geometric
center of the battery case. It can be used for positioning systems such as the ones shown in Fig. 3b
and c, since the actuation of the UAV occurs by
pushing the add on disc part towards the center of
the ground station. The center skid modification
in Fig. 4 is a square configuration of legs that has
sides symmetric to the geometric center of the
battery case. The positioning system can use four
arms as proposed in Section 3.2 in Fig. 3b in a way
that the skids can be guided to the center of the
ground platform. In the case of the hexagonal skid
shapes, it can use the positioning system shown
in Fig. 3c, because the cables will tend to match
the sides of the skids, as the flat platform itself is
hexagonal. As in the previous case, the sides of the
polygon are symmetric to the battery housing in
order to guide the UAV to the desired centering
with the battery coupling system.
Focusing on the square skids case, we propose
a battery housing, which will provide a secure
location for the battery and avoid safety issues due
to mechanical damage. This can facilitate battery
transportation and provides easy modifications.
It is also a good modular design for prototyping
(it can be changed and redesigned very easily).
The battery housing has terminals that can couple with the UAV in order to power it and also
has connections to match with the charger in the
ground station. A possible design of a battery
case is depicted in Fig. 5. Projection views of a
battery case are shown on the left and the isometric view of a possible skid assembly can be
seen at the right. At the bottom and at the right
views of the battery case, ferromagnetic plates are
placed with the intent of using an electromagnet to move it in other systems (see Sections 3.6
and 3.7).
3.4 Battery and UAV Connecting System

Normally, batteries are connected to UAVs via
wire plugs and placed inside the UAV, thereby,
ensuring terminal connection and battery stability.
However, in a platform that has to rapidly swap a
UAVs depleted battery for a recharged one, such
a connection/holding system is not suitable. The
method by which the battery is secured and physically connected to the UAV is of great importance
because it will effect the repeatability, complexity,
and the time that the ground station will take to
swap batteries. Also, the added weight will effect
the UAVs payload and flight time.
Fig. 5 Battery case design for magnetic couplers
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In order to create the interface between UAV

and platform, mechanical and magnetic couplers
are considered and devices that can easily hold
and release batteries while ensuring terminal connections in a UAV are proposed.
3.5 Mechanical and Magnetic Couplers

A battery holding system in a UAV must be low
in weight, securely hold the battery during flight,
resist small impacts (such as small drops), maintain the battery and UAV terminal connections,
and allow easy insertion and extraction of the
battery when necessary. To do so with mechanical
components, a simple model can be employed.
Figure 6a depicts a mechanical coupler model
in which a battery is forced upward against the
lower angled surface of spring assisted latch devices (the symmetric arrow-shaped pins). This
actuation generates a force in the latch device,
whose horizontal component will contract the
spring allowing the battery to pass through the
mechanism. When the battery finally reaches the
end, it does not compress the springs anymore and
the spring of the latch device will force the battery
upward, guaranteeing the electric contact of UAV
and battery terminals during flight.
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Fig. 6 Model of battery

insertion in mechanical
and magnetic coupler
Figure 7 shows an example mechanical coupler

for a battery case to match the UAV. It consists
of leaf spring latches that have angles on the ends.
When actuated upward, the latches bend, allowing the battery to pass through the spring. Since
the battery case has matching indentations on its
sides, it allows the spring to lock the battery case
in place.
Instead of using moving parts as in a mechanical lock, neodymium magnets can be used
(Fig. 6b). These magnets can provide similar holding characteristics as a mechanical coupler. If the
magnets are used as interface terminals between
the UAV and battery, then it becomes a more versatile plug-and-play terminal auto-guiding system.
This approach was used in [4], where neodymium
magnets were set in a fiberglass battery casing and

in an ESky LAMA V4 helicopters belly to establish terminal match and coupling. In that system,
a servo motor rotates the battery case in order
to cause shear in the magnets and allow battery
disengagement from the UAV. While there can
be concern about interaction between the magnets
and the UAV gyroscope, [4] reported no such
complications.
Figure 6b shows a straightforward procedure of
coupling and terminal matching. By simply moving the battery toward the UAV, which both possess magnet terminals, the fixed UAV will attract
the battery to it, forcing terminal match. Magnet
polarity on the terminals can be inverted to ensure
only one locking position.
Fig. 7 Example of mechanical coupler with matching battery case
Magnets are very versatile, but they have disengagement problems against shearing forces and
impact. Also, if they are used as terminals, they
may attract metallic bodies that may cause shortcircuits. Adding magnets to all batteries in a system is a good idea to ensure terminal connection
and locking. However, it may cause problems in
battery transportation because the batteries may
attract each other and cause unwanted terminal
contact (which can be very undesirable for Li-
Fig. 8 Battery case and UAV module assembly in UAV skids
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Po batteries). Another issue is the total number

of magnets in the system; too many may increase
overall system cost. In addition, neodymium magnets are very brittle, and if they are released
to match from a distance, they may break upon
collision.
Although magnets on both the UAV and battery can enable easy matching, there are disadvantages as discussed previously. An option to
reduce the use of magnets is to use them only in
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the UAVs and replace the ones in the battery case

with sheet metal ferromagnetic terminals.
To steer clear of the possible short-circuit issues, a male-female plug connection is proposed.
This type of connection allows a physical wall
to stay between the terminals, and even if metallic parts are attracted to them, the probability
of short-circuits is reduced. This design option
is depicted in Fig. 8. The top left figure shows
male connectors in the front view of the battery
case, while the top center figure provides a cut
view of the UAV module to show the female
plugs and terminals. The terminals plus (+) and
minus () in the battery case are the terminals
that will power the UAV when connected to it,
while all four of them (given a 3 cell battery) will
be used to recharge the battery when it reaches
the recharging platform. The terminals plus (+)
and minus () in the UAV module are the UAV
terminals, while 1 and 2 are only magnets that help
to secure the battery case in the correct position.
3.6 Battery Capturing System
Another important system in the design of an automatic battery swapping machine is the method
to secure a battery for transportation and how to
safely insert and extract batteries from the UAVs.
The required systems are a battery capturing device and a battery transportation method from
UAV to swapping site. We consider only mechanical and electrical options.
The battery capturing system has only one function: prevent the battery from movement in any
direction relative to the capture device or grabber. We considered a mechanical claw, servoassisted magnets and electromagnets. Mechanical
devices require guidance and positioning in order
to clamp the battery and pull it out of the UAV.
This sort of system demands use of physical space
to open and close arms, has many moving parts
(is thus more prone to failure) and may require
tight tolerances to ensure assembly and guide
movements. Electromagnets could also be used as
a capturing system. They are easy to control and
have high repeatability, although a ferromagnetic
plate must be attached to the battery case, increasing on board weight. A servo-assisted permanent
magnet was used in [4] to extract the battery from
the UAV. It is also an option to use magnets on
both sides of the UAV/battery interface. Such a
system does not use a servo-motor at all times,
and so, small amounts of current are required.
However, it has moving parts and magnets may
attract foreign bodies, causing short-circuits in the
system.
We propose a capturing system with one electromagnet to remove the battery case from the
UAV. Such a system must be tested to ensure no
interaction with UAV guidance systems.
In Fig. 9a, the UAV is assumed to have reached
a specific position. At the bottom of the UAV,
there is a battery case, which is being held by
either mechanical coupling or by magnets, as de-
Fig. 9 In a, an electromagnet is moved up. In b, the electromagnet reaches the battery case and is turned on, capturing the
battery from the UAV. In c, the electromagnet is pulled downward and the battery case is extracted from the UAV
575
scribed in the previous chapter. At the bottom of

the battery case, there is a ferromagnetic metallic
plate. The capturing system moves vertically via
an elevator and the electromagnet is activated
when necessary. The system moves upward until
it reaches the bottom of the battery case metallic
plate. As shown in Fig. 9b, the electromagnet is
then turned on and thereby securely attaches to
the battery case. As seen in Fig. 9c, the elevator
pulls the electromagnet down, resulting in battery
case extraction from the UAV. This approach is
different from the one in [4], that instead uses
shearing forces to separate the magnets. Due to
our approach, either mechanical or magnetic couplers can be used to secure the battery case to the
UAV.
3.7 Battery Transportation Method from UAV

to Swapping Site and Battery Storage System
Fig. 10 In a, swapping system components are shown. In

b, the rack and pinion actuation system places the depleted
battery in the buffer zone, while releasing the charged
battery in the swapping zone. In c, the charged battery is
actuated to the UAV, while the rack retrieves the depleted

battery from the buffer and places it inside the charger
magazine
As seen in Section 3.6, there is a need to transport

the depleted battery and case to the swapping site,
where a recharged battery can be obtained. In
order to charge the depleted batteries, a charger
array is required. In our proposed design, each
charger has a housing that matches the battery
case geometry. It must have terminal interfaces
that can connect the battery case terminals with
the charger ones. The chosen design for the elevator was a vertical scissor elevator that can extract
the battery and the case from the UAV, deliver
the battery to the battery supply site, and return
the case and recharged battery back to the UAV.
576
The charger array design chosen was a circular

array of chargers that feed the elevator: a battery
magazine. To connect these two systems, a rack
and pinion system is proposed for the battery and
case transportation that removes the battery from
the charger array and delivers it to the elevator
and vice versa. The rack has another electromagnet on the actuating end. It will hold the battery
case while being transported.
The systems described in this section are depicted in Fig. 10. Figure 10a provides information
about the system parts. Initially, the UAV is to
be guided to a fixed place, where the elevator can
access the battery case. In Fig. 10b, the depleted
battery is assumed to have reached the swapping
site, at the center of the circular platform. The
battery is being held on the top of the elevator
by an electromagnet (as seen in Section 3.6). The
charger array positions a magazine cell containing
a charged battery in alignment with the rack and
pinion system. The electromagnet at the tip of the
rack will turn on and the rack will be actuated. The
charged battery is pushed toward the depleted
battery by the rack, and together they move until
the used battery reaches the buffer zone, marked
with the sign . The rack then retracts (leaving
the old battery in the position until the fully
charged battery and case are positioned on the
elevator. The rack electromagnet is turned off,
thereby releasing the new battery and case. The
rack retracts further to clear the elevator operation area. In Fig. 10c, while the elevator raises the
new battery to the UAV, the rack system captures

the depleted battery from the buffer and places it
in the charger magazine, initiating charging of the
depleted battery.
3.8 Battery Storage System Options
and Consequences of Design Choices
The place where the battery will be stored for
charging is of great importance for the system. It is
directly related to the way that the battery will be
transported back to the UAV as well as how the
chargers will be connected to the power line. The
options proposed are:
One or more circular arrays of batteries to be

used as a magazine,
XY axis array of batteries, and
XZ axis array of batteries.
The circular array, depicted in Fig. 11 is not

space efficient; the center part is not used. There
are complications in connecting the chargers,
since the disc will spin, and simple wire connections may be caught in the assembly. As the
batteries are arranged in a circular array, access
to batteries is simple and may be more energy
efficient. There is a need only for one actuator to
spin the disc, and another to swap batteries from
the assembly. As the disc only spins, it is easier to
control when compared to a two axis system.
The linear arrays are very space efficient, because a grid of battery chargers can be organized
Fig. 11 Magazine of batteries in a circular array of chargers actuated by rack and pinion system
577
Fig. 12 Batteries in a matrix array of chargers accessed by a small gantry crane
easily and side-by-side. Since it is a static system,

wiring is possible, making it easy to make charger
connections with the station. There is a need for
precise actuation and linear guides in at least two
axes, in order to find the correct battery position
in the charger array. This will increase control
algorithm complexity, when compared to the circular array design. Figure 12 depicts one possible
implementation of such a linear array in an XY
orientation. A rectangular XZ array can also be
similarly conceived.
complexity of the battery holding device, allow

battery extraction from the front part of the UAV
and minimize UAV modifications. As a con, the
number of floors of the circular battery array discs
cannot be increased easily, since the UAV must be
able to drop low enough to reach each array once
a more complicated system is required. Also, the
amount of force required from the elevator will be
increased, since the entire UAV is elevated.
4 Prototype
3.9 Elevator Design Option for UAV Vertical
Transportation
There are other options to deliver the battery
case to the swapping site, other than moving the
battery after extracting it from the UAV. One
is to lower the entire UAV, and at the swapping site, exchange batteries with the UAV, as
depicted in Fig. 13. Such a system may reduce
We next discuss module prototypes developed

to learn the failure modes and measure robustness to continuous operation. Considering that
a deployed station is expected to operate without human assistance for a long time, we designed many of the parts to operate under loose
tolerance specifications to account for eventual
wearing. Most of the parts were manufactured
578
Fig. 13 In a, UAV is lowered to the swapping site. In b, the depleted battery is extracted straight out of the UAV. In c, a
new battery is actuated in the UAV after magazine actuation
with laser-cut acrylic to simulate loose tolerance

and unpredicted wearing. Successful operation of
the system under loose tolerance conditions suggests that the system also works well with tight
tolerances. A full CAD prototype is shown in
Fig. 14.
Figure 15 depicts the block diagram of our
ground station. The dark blocks are the modules which we prototyped and tested. Some of
the blocks are complementary to each other. For
example, to lock and unlock the UAV in the
platform, the opposite actuation is used, although
other methods and mechanisms could be applied.
Fig. 14 Full ground

station CAD prototype
The following sections will briefly introduce the

module prototypes.
4.1 Orientation-fixing Module
Outdoor conditions may cause difficulties for the
navigation system. Therefore, to require the UAV
to land in a very specific position with a very
specific orientation may not only be unattainable
but also risky; the UAV already has low battery
power when seeking the platform. Therefore, accepting as many different landing positions as possible enhances the chances of keeping the UAS
579
No
Center UAV
Move UAV to right

orientation
Bring battery to
exchange zone
Extract battery
from UAV
Lock UAV
Insert battery
back in UAV
Unlock UAV
Inform control
That UAV is ready
Start
UAV has
arrived?
Swap battery with

a charged one
Place depleted
battery into charger
Yes
No
Place next
charged battery in
position
Has the UAV

departed?
Yes
End
Prepare system
for next UAV
Fig. 15 Block diagram of the complete system for swapping batteries
fully operational for a longer time. Assuming that

the position was already corrected by the positionfixing module and the UAV is centered but with
unknown orientation, the orientation fixing module fixes the UAV at its center of mass and spins it
until it finds the correct orientation. The correct
orientation is detected by an IR sensor. When
the UAV reaches the correct position, light from
an IR LED reflects from the skid into the IR
sensor. To prevent outside sources (e.g. the sun)
from interfering with the reading, the IR is sent in
pulses at the frequency of 250 Hz, and a straight
sequence of 15 matching pulses (checking on high
and low) determines a positive orientation match.
Since we are using a step motor to spin the UAV,
and the step motor is also driven by the same code
which drives the IR pulses, 15 matching pulses is
about what is needed to certify a correct orien-
tation without clocking the step motor one more

time, which would then add some error. The block
diagram can be seen in Fig. 16.
The prototype of this module is shown in
Fig. 17. The round white plate in Fig. 17a lifts
and rotates the UAV, while the black dots in the
foreground of the black colored base plate are
the IR sensor. Lift is done manually by rotating
a lever at the side of the prototype. After finding
the correct position, the step motor stops spinning and the round plate can be lowered. Success
rate of this assembly, indoors, was 100% in 100
trials.
4.2 UAV Locking/unlocking Module
Assuming that the UAV is already in the correct
position with the correct orientation, the UAV
580
Move UAV to right

orientation
Start
Turn on Step Motor

Control
Lift UAV
Rotate UAV 1 step
Send IR burst
No
Is the UAV on the

right orientation?
Count received
pulses
Yes
Turn off Step Motor

Control
Lower UAV
End
Fig. 16 Block diagram of the orientation connection

method
plastic arm designed to match the UAV landing

skid at the given position. This implementation allows for some position correction based on the angular motion of the servo, which can displace the
UAV sideways in case the orientation-fixing module had affected the position alignment. Although
this system works just fine, it still allows some
fore/aft translation of the UAV skids. Adding two
plastic arms per skid (instead of just one) allows
the system to lock on the skid support structure as
well, preventing not only sideways translations but
also fore/aft translations. The white plastic locks
can be seen in Fig. 17a, and a locked UAV can be
seen in Fig. 17b.
4.3 Battery Extraction Module
Assuming that the UAV is already in the right position, with desired orientation, and secured, this
system extracts the old battery from the landed
UAV. There is an electromagnet at the center
of the orientation fixing module. At the bottom
of the battery case there is a steel plate. The
electromagnet secures the battery case by this
plate. Once the electromagnet has attached to
the steel plate at the bottom of the battery case,
the structure holding the electromagnet descends.
The force generated by the electromagnet exceeds
that of the battery case magnets holding the case
to the UAV. Thus, the battery case is separated
from the UAV. In the prototype, this downward
motion is done by hand, since the weight of the
orientation fixing module is not enough to detach the battery. The complete implementation,
however, relies on the elevator to provide enough
force to remove the battery and case. The electromagnet can be seen on Fig. 17a, at the center.
The battery case and matching plate on the
underbelly of the UAV add about 20 g to the
overall UAV mass.
4.4 Battery Swap Module
locking system ensures that the process of extracting the old battery and inserting a new one will not
affect the position and orientation of the landed
UAV. This is required since the battery swapping system assumes the UAV to be in a known
position to perform its tasks. The module was
implemented as a pair of servomotors each with a
Assuming that the battery was successfully removed from the UAV, brought to the exchange
zone, and that there is a charged battery already
in position to be exchanged, the battery swap
system exchanges the old battery for a new one.
The battery swap module is also responsible for
581
Fig. 17 Prototype for the lock module, orientation-fixing module and battery extraction module. In a it is possible to see the
elements of each module. b shows a UAV with the orientation already fixed and locked into the platform
placing the old battery inside a charger. Figure 18a

shows the basic components of the module. The
batteries are moved by a rack and pinion system.
There is a step motor driving the pinion. At one of
the ends of the rack there is an electromagnet. The
set of step motor, rack, pinion and electromagnet
we call battery actuator. The battery case has
a steel plate on its side, which is used by the
battery actuator to secure it during movement.
The zone marked with an X is the exchange
zone, it indicates the location where the battery
extraction module rests the battery after it has
completed removal of the battery and case from
the UAV.
The zone marked with a minus is a buffer.
Figure 18b shows the situation where the used
battery and case have been lowered to the swap
module; a fresh battery and case is to the immediate left of the old battery. In Fig. 18c, the rack
has pushed the new battery to the X position,
displacing the old battery to the buffer (marked
(minus)). The rack electromagnet releases
the new battery and it is delivered to the UAV.
After, in Fig. 18d, the rack extends, attaches to the
old battery case and pulls it out of the (minus)
location. That battery would then be delivered to
charging module. This setup went through a reliability test session, successfully completing 2,500
trials without any errors.
The final location of the used battery is shown
in Fig. 11 in the context of the larger system. It will
rotate away from the rack and a new battery will

replace it.
4.5 Estimated Swap Time of One Ground Station
To evaluate the performance of a full-scale prototype, we used data from the prototyped modules and estimations from our CAD models. The
prototyped modules were extensively tested and
improved until 100% success rate was obtained
at loose tolerances. The worst-case execution time
was then measured. The non-prototyped modules
were assumed to work also at 100% success rate,
and the worst-case execution time was estimated
using motor data sheets, eventual reductions applied to the motor and the moment of inertia from
the CAD models. Table 1 summarizes the data.
With this data in hand, we could then define a
maximum size and maximum coverage of a given
ground station (see Section 2). Of course, by trying to make all the terms of Eq. 5 equal, some design adjustments may affect the time estimations
in Table 1, so some iteration may be required.
Assuming that our designed platform swapping
time is within 1 min (the 47.5 s estimated plus
some extra time), and charge time and flight time
are 85 min and 15 min, respectively, the maximum
number of UAVs that this service station can
support is 16 UAVs (forcing T LUAV = T LPLAT ), and
the minimum number of batteries to support the
UAVs continuously is 103 batteries (16 on the
582
Fig. 18 a shows the components of the system, while

be demonstrate the swap process. On b we see the old
battery at the exchange zone and c shows the old battery
at the buffer and the new one at the exchange zone. At d,
the new battery was carried to the UAV and the battery
actuator reaches the old battery while in e the old battery
is brought to the charger
UAVs, 87 on the service station). The maximum

coverage which one of these stations can produce
ACH
= 15, so if higher coverage is reis then CSYS
quired, either the modules and/or processes on

the ground station must work faster, or an extra
ground station should be employed.
583
Table 1 Estimated swap time, detailed by each module

execution time
Module
Time (s)
Position fixing
Orientation fixing
UAV lock
Elevator
Battery swap
Total
15.0*
13.0
1.0
6.5*
4.5
47.5
Notes
Worst case (full turn)
To be counted twice
To be counted twice
The proof follows the same method as in

Corollary 1.
For a charging platform the total component
cost of the UAS (including the platforms, chargers, batteries and UAVs) is
RECH
RECH
VTOT
= NPLAT VPLAT
+ NUAV VUAV + NCGR
VCGR + NBATT VBATT ,
Estimated times are marked with an asterisk (*)
and similarly, the cost of a replacement system is

REP
REP
= NPLAT VPLAT
+ NUAV VUAV + NCGR
VTOT
5 UAS Cost Comparison
VCGR + NBATT VBATT ,
To determine the cost of a UAS requires an estimate of the number of components in the system.
From Theorem 1 we can directly obtain the number of components to achieve a target coverage
TGT
.
CSYS
Corollary 1 For a recharge platform, the minimum
number of components that will guarantee a target
TGT
coverage of CSYS
is:

TGT
CSYS
(T F + T R + T I ) ,
(6)
NUAV =
TF

NPLAT =

TGT
CSYS
TR .
TF
(7)
TGT
Proof By Theorem 1, CSYS
CSYS
= T F /TCYC.
TGT
Equivalently, T F / CSYS max T LUAV , T LPLAT
TGT
TGT
T LUAV and T F / CSYS
T LPLAT .
or T F / CSYS
Since TLUAV = (TR + TF + TI ) /NUAV and TLPLAT =
T R /NUAV , it is equivalent to require NUAV
TGT
TGT
CSYS
(T R + T F + T I ) /T F and NPLAT CSYS

T R /T F . The result follows.
Similarly, for replacement we obtain the

following.
Corollary 2 For a replacement platform, the minimum number of components that will guarantee a
system coverage is (6) and (7),

TGT
CSYS
NBATT =
(8)
(TC + T R ) NUAV ,
TF

TGT
CSYS
NCGR =
(9)
TC .
TF
RECH
REP
, VPLAT
, VUAV , VBATT and VCGR are
where VPLAT
the costs of a recharge platform, a replace platform, UAV, battery, and charger, respectively.
The UASs described here are composed of several modules that result in the final cost estimation
of this ground automation system. The cost analysis is a rough estimate. We focus our attention
on parameters specifically related to the systems
designed and shown throughout the development
of this work, which is the energy replenishment
of the UAV itself. Parameters such as the cost of
the navigation system, the external power and the
human resources are not used in the estimation.
We consider
Platform basic cost: estimated from the complexity of the system,

Battery: number of batteries in the system,
Charger: number of chargers present in the
system,
UAVs: number of UAVs the system needs to
reach the required coverage.
Here, in the case of refill platforms, the basic

cost is estimated according to UAV complexity.
This is a rough estimate based on a system that
has a fair level of electronic complexity (related to
number of LiPo battery cells) and UAV-platformconnection interfaces (related to how many battery terminal connections are needed). In the case
of battery replacement platforms, this basic cost
is estimated to be 1500 USD, since moving parts
are added in order to transport batteries in the
system.
Refill platforms work with one charger each
and each UAV carries its own battery. Replacement systems require fewer UAVs to obtain the
584
Table 2 Data used to
plot the cost comparison
graph
Cost of (USD)
Battery
UAV
Charger
Refill platform (raw costsame for all)
Replace platform (raw costsame for all)
Time of (min)
Flight
Charge
Replace
Maximum values per replacement platform
Maximum coverage
Minimum chargers
same coverage, because of the relatively fast energy replenishment time (See Section 4.5).
The information obtained from the Petri nets
(see Section 2) and the experiments mentioned in
previous sections are summarized in Table 2, for
three types of UAVs.
The Cheap UAV is in the micro aerial vehicle (MAV) range, which can be a very small
UAV with the size of an insect or a UAV for
hobby purposes with estimated flight time of 10
min and battery recharge time of 25 min. Their
battery has fewer cells, thus less cost (battery and
charger costs are estimated as 5 and 30 USD
Fig. 19 Cost comparison

between battery
replacement and battery
recharging ground service
stations
Cheap
Mid-range
Expensive
5
30
10
20
500
15
20
1,500
100
1,500
50
10
25
1
15
85
1
30
85
1
10
27
15
87
30
87
respectively). The cost for a platform designed

to fit this model of UAV is 20 and 1,500 USD
for refill and replacement systems respectively.
The refill platform cost is very low compared to
the replacement one. This happens because the
refill case only needs a few electronic components
while the replacement platform requires battery
replacement (therefore, guides, actuators and precise movements are needed).
Based on the information of the previous sections, we draw a cost comparison graph. Since
the current focus of this paper is on replacement
platforms, in Fig. 19 we plot the cost advantage
585
of a UAS using replacement platforms against an

equivalent UAS based on refill (recharge) platforms. We define cost advantage at a given coverage C as:
RECH
REP
Adv(C) = VTOT
(C) VTOT
(C).
(10)
Positive values of Adv(C) imply that the replacement system is economically more viable
than a refill system. Figure 19 shows that the
points where replacement systems become more
efficient are C = 1.23 and C = 1.33 for midrange and expensive UAVs, respectively. On the
other hand, a replacement UAS never becomes
economically better than a refill UAS for cheap
UAVs. However, it is important to notice that the
number of UAVs required to fulfill a given target
coverage is usually greater in a refill UAS than in a
replacement UAS. This analysis does not include
control algorithm complexity nor the availability
of control channels, therefore replacement UAS
may still be better.
6 Concluding Remarks
In order to plan a new UAS or to analyze an existing UAS, we developed a Petri net model which
allows us to calculate the system coverage based
on the component parameters. UAS expansion
or resource management can be guided and/or
optimized with the aid of this model.
We also developed several module prototypes,
both conceptually and physically, which together
comprise one service station to swap batteries
with high success rates. The complete station
is able to compensate for orientation and positioning errors. It addresses navigation imprecision, weather conditions and/or UAV damage,
which are common issues in outdoor missions and
combat environments. The ground station is also
capable of handling heterogeneous UAV fleets
with not only different shapes and sizes, but also
different number of battery cells per battery pack.
Further development of such replacement stations
and replenishment stations is essential to reduce
the limitations caused by having humans in the
loop.
7 Future Work
As future work, we will conduct further testing with prototype modules of UAV positioning
systems (see Section 3.2), new skid designs (see
Section 4) and battery transportation systems
(see Section 3.7). After the prototype modules
are fully operational and reliable, the next intended step is to make an entire integrated system that can replace UAV depleted batteries for
new recharged ones autonomously upon UAV
landing.
Other future work is related to gasoline refueling ground stations, where studies will be performed with the goal of having fully autonomous
ground service stations for heterogeneous fleets.
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Automatic Battery Replacement System For UAVs: Analysis and Design

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J Intell Robot Syst (2012) 65:563586