Drones are rapidly becoming a major feature in our day to day lives- this is a relatively new trend.
However, for years they have been used by military organisations around the planet, who tend to lead in this space.
The U.S. Army has once again demonstrated its capacity to lead in the development of drone technology and have developed a sophisticated new method for keeping drones in the air indefinitely!
Currently drone users face a major problem- power. Most commercially available drones can only be air born for around 30 minutes, although for more sophisticated military drones this can be longer. Regardless, these things have to come down eventually.
Lasers have been touted by the U.S. army as the panacea for this problem. Theoretically a laser shot from the ground could power a drone mid-flight. This would function through the laser hitting a ‘photovoltaic cell’ on the drone, which would then convert the light from the laser into electricity.
However, bringing this technology to the battlefield or making it commercially practical is still not feasible for a number of reasons.
Distance. The U.S. army claims they could currently do this accurately from 500 metres away. Evidently, the practical use of this is limited. 500 metres is not really a game changer, why not just bring it down and charge it manually if you are that close?
Not melting the drone. Any laser energy that isn’t converted to electricity through the mechanism described above becomes heat- this would likely damage the drone. The army must ensure that excess heat is dissipated without causing any damage to the drone.
Accuracy. It follows that if heat damages the drone, researchers will have to ensure the accuracy of the laser beam. The beam must hit the ‘photovoltaic cell’ in order for the process to function.
Evidently there is much work to do. However, it is perfectly feasible the U.S. army will be able to achieve this.
Which leaves us to consider the military and civilian applications.
Military. These drones would greatly improve a military organisations capabilities to monitor targets and if necessary attack them, giving drones greater air time and extending the potential lengths of missions.
Civilian. We have all heard about Amazon’s plans for drone delivery. An accurate enough system could vastly increase the speed and frequency of deliveries.
Drone technologies will soon come to touch all our lives, developments like these illustrate the extent to which they could defend us AND help us.
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