Power Supply Architectures for Drones - A Review

Drones are recently receiving a growing attention in both civil and military sectors. Despite their good features such as high maneuverability, wide variety of usage, and low cost; battery-powered drones are still limited in terms of endurance. They cannot perform long flights and persistent missions. This paper proposes then a review-based discussion of the solutions addressing this issue, including swapping laser-beam inflight recharging and tethering. Hybrid power supply system is also a solution of choice. Combining battery with different sources such as fuel cell, solar cells, and supercapacitor allows the system to benefit from sources advantages and cover their limitations. In this context, this paper provides a comparative and critical study of different power supply architectures, thus facilitating the trade-off in the choice of the suitable drone power supply system. Insights and recommendations for future research are also provided.