[CES 2015] When it comes to the flight times of drones, they do not really perform all that well – averaging 10 to 25 minutes at best, which is more often than not way too short if it were to be called upon to perform a survey of a vast area – perhaps acres of farmland, or to deliver goods a few miles out. Chances are the drone operator would need to land the drone, swap the battery in the midst of its “mission” before the drone returns to its task. Skysense hopes to change all of that by coming up with what they call a portable charging pad, firstly for the Parrot Bebop Drone, which would enable drones to land on it before charging up the exhausted drone’s batteries automatically.
Andrea Puiatti, CEO of Skysense, said, “This solves two problems. The first, it enables you to manage the operation remotely. Second, you can have a drone that takes off at any time without human intervention to change the battery, thus enabling fully autonomous missions.”
The asking price for this charging pad would cost anywhere from $649 and $4,365, depending on what kind of goodies that are requested in the final roll out. The vast price difference would certainly translate to a whole lot of customization, don’t you think so? After all, the power tiles themselves are gold-plated where the landing area is concerned, which would certainly add up to the overall cost.