This Suitcase-Size Dock Will Allow Drones To Fly Continously All The Time

A self-flying drone will become very more useful if it has the ability to work in airborne all the time. Due to such an idea, a company called Skydio has already introduced a system for its automated drone to work around the clock without any human intervention. Dubbed as Skydio 2 Dock, the drone station allows drones to recharge by itself, meaning that it requires no human to work. By using inertial navigation and visual system, the robotic flyer will be able to land on a charging pad. The pad then provides power derived from a vehicle or wall outlets, or simply access data through  WiFi or Ethernet.

According to Skydio, the dock system is pretty small for being put inside a suitcase. As promoted, users can have it ready just in “minutes”, which is not far from ideal when it comes to field deployments. For example, it can bring a lot of uses when operating search-and-rescue missions after disasters, or an all-night security patrol. Though it doesn’t require us to swap batteries or plug-in our out-of-battery drones, you would actually need at least a few drones if you want to make non-stop operations, considering that a single charge consumes around one hour.

Skydio has a significant number of the Dock in the pipeline when expect to reach a handful of customers next year. A ballpark figure of its price tag hasn’t been revealed, but the company claimed that the cost would be significantly more accessible than other solutions that cost thousands of bucks.

In the meantime, Skydio may have to choose where the company will offer this service, based on legal issues like drone rules in specific regions.