Research and Validation of 21700 Lithium-Ion Cells and UAV Battery Packs (DK-Unit)

Project type: Contract research
Related research project: JP2_5 “Development of Efficient, Sustainable, and Universal Battery Packs for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles” EDI electrical engineer: Edmunds Kamolins

Within the research project implemented by SIA “DK UNITY”, the Institute of Electronics and Computer Science carried out contract research focused on the analysis and validation of 21700-format lithium-ion cells and UAV battery packs.

The first task addressed cell measurement, cycling and sorting methods, internal-resistance and capacity measurements, filtering of lower-performance cells and charging parameters. The second task focused on the performance of cells and battery packs under nominal and elevated-voltage conditions in laboratory and UAV-platform tests.

The research resulted in two technical reports and two scientific publications:

• “Data-driven 21700 Lithium-ion Cell Sorting and Fair Comparison of UAV Battery Pack Configurations”, Latvian Journal of Physics and Technical Sciences;
• “A Validation-Oriented Electro-Thermal Assessment of a 12S 4-in-1 ESC Prototype for UAV Propulsion”, Transport Means 2026.

The first publication presents a data-driven approach to 21700 cell sorting and UAV battery-pack comparison, while the second presents an electro-thermal assessment of a 12S 4-in-1 ESC prototype.