Borrowing a trick from the Air Force , whose planes can complete long - kitchen stove missions thanks to in - flight fueling from tanker aircraft , researchers at UC Berkeley showed off a new way tokeep small trailer in the airalmost indefinitely : flying replacement batteriesthat can be swapped without landing .
https://gizmodo.com/researchers-found-a-good-reason-to-attach-a-nail-gun-to-1838372155
The enjoyment of four propellers not only helps meliorate the stability of quadcopter drones while hovering in position , it also makes them improbably manoeuvrable and tight . Drone rush hasbecome a dizzying spectacle , but race rarely last longer than a few moment because four propellers also want four galvanizing motors which can quickly run out a battery . Adding more batteries adds weight , which requires stronger motor , and eventually you reach the detail where the length of lagger flight arrive at a limit and sassy battery are require .
Gif: HiPeR Lab (YouTube)
For drone racing car , swap in a new power pack between race is n’t a problem . But for other drone applications , like farsighted - rangereconnaissance missionsordelivering parcelsacross a large city , having to land to recharge or grab a new battery can add undesirable complication and time delays . seek a different solution , researcher atUC Berkeley ’s HiPeR Lab(High Performance Robotics Lab ) came up with transposition stamp battery that can not only fly , but also link up to great drones mid - escape .
To streamline the battery swapping process , which usually requires a cable to be unplugged and plug back in , the investigator make a quadcopter with a landing pad featuring electrical contact pad on top . The alternate batteries have their own sets of propellers and motors and are designed to take flight up and cope with the with child drone and then adjoin down on the landing domiciliation after the craft has stabilized itself . Power is then transferred through the electric battery ’s landing legs , which feature electrical contacts .
The prototype create at UC Berkeley ’s lab is power by a 2.2 Ah Li - polymer barrage fire that can keep it aloft for about 12 minutes . The flying successor battery each have a capacity of 1.5 Ah ( in addition to a smaller battery used to power the smaller laggard as it flies to and from the large trade ) that strain the prototype ’s flight time by roughly five hour . The flying replacement barrage ability all of the independent drone ’s electronics and motors once they land , but do n’t recharge its elemental battery . So during times when the drone ’s landing place pad is n’t being used , it slowly drains its primary battery . But in examination , the concept has shown to boost the epitome ’s overall flight times from 12 minutes to well over an 60 minutes .
There are other logistical problems to overcome to make this access feasible . Fleets of take flight replacement battery would have to be do up along a drone ’s escape track to boost its range . That ’s not a abominably difficult proposition for larger cities and delivery drone , but it adds complications for autonomous military drones which are often flying in country where instal fundament for extra flight batteries would be knotty .
Dronesuc berkeley
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