KoBat
Wireless, battery-free monitoring of emergency batteries in aircraft.
The emergency batteries on board sit in closed compartments, and checking them means opening one. The battery itself could power a sensor that reports its state, but that would drain it, and an emergency battery has to stay full for the day it is needed. KoBat reads the voltage of the battery from outside, with a sensor that has no battery of its own and takes its energy from the handheld reader the operator already uses in pre-flight checks.
A working sensor, in its enclosure
The result is a working demonstrator: a battery-free UHF RFID sensor board that measures the voltage of the battery it is wired to, mounted in an enclosure designed so the plastic does not detune the antenna, with versions for metal and non-metal surfaces.
It needs no new interface, cabling or proprietary protocol: it answers the standard handheld reader of the inspection, so it fits the procedure the operator already follows.
EVAL-SID-BAT-MKW · KL00100013 rev 1.0
What is validated, and what is next
Radio link, validated
The sensor in its enclosure was characterised in an anechoic chamber with an RFID tag measurement system, with a satisfactory result.
Voltage reading, validated
The measurement of the battery voltage was checked separately in our own lab, with the instrument suited to it.
Standards, mapped
A section-by-section review of the airborne equipment environmental standard and of the European and US airworthiness framework, to know which tests apply to a sensor with no battery and no transmitter of its own.
Still to do
- Environmental tests in an accredited laboratory: the campaign is defined and sized.
- A pilot on a real aircraft, which depends on access to an operational site.
The same approach serves other batteries that sit where nobody looks until they are needed: emergency lighting, fire panels, telecom cabinets and UPS. Read our note on backup battery monitoring.
Funding
KoBat: monitorización inalámbrica y sin batería de las baterías de emergencia en aeronaves (Gipuzkoa Digitala: Producto 4.0, 2025-I40P-000046-01)
Gipuzkoako Foru Aldundiak diruz lagundua, Gipuzkoa Digitala programaren bidez / Subvencionado por la Diputación Foral de Gipuzkoa a través del programa Gipuzkoa Digitala