Company Offering New Battery Chargers For Small Drones.

• Author: Machi, Vivienne

Delta-Q--a Vancouver, Canada-based industrial battery charger company--has begun developing lithium ion-based battery chargers that can help small drones operate for longer periods of time, said a company executive.

Unmanned aerial vehicles are being used for a slew of purposes including public safety, construction, mining, surveillance or last-mile deliveries. That means "they need longer run times... which means higher battery capacity," said Rod Dayrit, company director of business development for North America.

Lithium ion-based chargers can help power small drones that weigh less than 11 pounds, he added.

Delta-Q recently unveiled its new ICL Series chargers, which are high-frequency, low-power devices. The ICL1200 and ICL1500 models provide 1,200 watts and 1,500 watts, respectively, according to the company. Both come in 85 volt and 120 volt models.

The chargers can communicate with "smart" batteries currently being employed by the UAV industry via the battery management system. These systems use artificial intelligence to correspond with the system controller and check on vital parameters such as the battery's performance, safety and state of health, according to the company.

The battery and charger are able to communicate and...