01 · Overview
Overview
The biggest limit of rotary-wing UAVs is short flight time. This station lets drones land and charge by cable on their own, without human intervention. It was Mayfly's ~one-year, KOSGEB-funded advanced-technology R&D project.
Mayfly · KOSGEB Advanced Technology project
Autonomous Drone Charging Station
A solar-assisted, fully autonomous wired charging station that talks MAVLink. It was Mayfly's KOSGEB advanced-technology project; I designed the system architecture and wrote all the embedded firmware single-handedly.
Highlights
- solar output target
- 600 W/h
- micro UAV charge
- <60 dk
- protection rating
- IP65
- communication range
- 3 km
- Role
- System architecture & embedded software (solo)
- Period
- 2022 – 2023
- Field
- UAV and drones · Embedded and hardware
- Status
- Mayfly · KOSGEB Advanced Technology project
Tech stack
- STM32
- C / C++
- MAVLink
- RFD900x
- BMS
- Güneş Enerjisi
02 · Solution
My Role
I designed the system architecture and wrote all of the STM32-based embedded firmware (C/C++) and the MAVLink communication single-handedly. This is where I first coded flawless MAVLink communication on an STM32 — my first professional step into industrial drone and MAVLink work.
03 · Solution
How It Works
The STM32 control board reads voltage/current sensors, drives step motors and relays, and communicates with the UAV over RFD900x using MAVLink. On the power side, a solar panel + grid backup is managed by a BMS for balanced charging. As the UAV approaches, the station's covers/panels open, the drone aligns and lands autonomously, and charges with no human intervention.
04 · Result
Outputs & Engineering Targets
Target specs of the designed station: 600 W/h solar generation, grid backup, <50 kg, 1000×1000×1500 mm, 3 km comms range, <60 min charge for a micro UAV, IP65, portable by two people, compatible with different drone systems. In the first phase I experimentally verified that Li-Po cells can be charged this way with a 150 W panel and designed the balanced-charging (BMS) architecture. The project received significant KOSGEB funding.
System Architecture
- L1Station (Embedded)
- STM32 control board
- Step motors & relays
- Voltage/current sensors
- L2Power System
- 600 W/h solar panel
- Grid (220V) backup
- BMS · balanced charging
- L3Communication
- MAVLink
- RFD900x (3 km)
- UAV ↔ station ↔ GCS
Gallery
Video
Need an autonomous charging / station (STM32) solution?
With STM32-based embedded firmware and MAVLink communication, I can design autonomous stations that need no human intervention.
For example:STM32 embedded firmwareMAVLink station commsSolar + BMS power system
- Outcome of this project
- KOSGEB-funded R&D
- First step
- Discovery & Feasibility — Free
- Requirements analysis · Technical roadmap · Rough plan and proposal document. Discovery and feasibility are free. The price and timeline of the project itself depend on its scope and come as a firm quote at the end of that work.
I'll build the same for you
Tell the assistant what you need — we will talk through whether I can build something like this, the approach and the free first step right away, and it books a time that suits you.
Book a free discovery call- Free 30-minute discovery call
- Developer of the Teknofest 2021 champion UAV software
- From a single consult to end-to-end delivery
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