Further endurance of UAVs for longer flight time.
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have come a long way from the civilian use of "drones" for personal entertainment such as hobby drone flyers, movie entertainment filming, and topography mapping, to the military use of surveillance and target neutralization. The benefits of UAVs include the lack of a crew, the ability to operate in hazardous conditions, the cost saving from these previous benefits and the increased endurance of drones are all major benefits. Endurance is one of the most sought after attribute when purchasing or using any UAV. Endurance time for most .personal UAVs for the high end models can range any where from 20 minutes (TRAXXAS 7908 ATON) to 26 minutes (DJI Phantom 4). (Jonathan, 2016) For military UAVs the endurance of these vehicles far overcome their civilian counterpart. The maximum endurance for the RQ-4 Global Hawk is around 35 hours, as where the MQ-1 and the MQ-9 Predator drones endurance is a max of 40 hours of continuous flight time. (“AeroWeb | MQ-1/MQ-9 predator/reaper,” 2016)
As the use of UAVs becomes more persistent, so does the outlook to different methods to continuing longer flight time for these vehicles and the ability to recharge or refuel them without the need of human intervention. One such attempt is by outfitting a UAV with solar panel "Solar panels installed on the external surfaces of the aerial vehicle collect the power from the sun during daylight and transfer it to the aircraft's batteries, which in turn power the propulsion systems and the electro-optical equipment of the aircraft. The panels and the batteries have to be appropriately sized, in order to ensure that there is enough energy surplus available to power the vehicle during the night i.e. when the sunlight is absent." (Panagiotou, Tsavlidis, & Yakinthos, 2016). This implication of a solar power to supply energy to the vehicle is an interesting one since it could potentially allow for "eternal" flight of the craft, where it would only need to land for repairs and upgrades.
The use of solar panels as the moment could not support the lift and thrust needed by military grade UAVs, for main the main circuit components of the craft, solar panels may be a great source for power. Yet for the main take off and continual movement of the vehicles this still would require the use of jet fuel. Though refueling of military drones is taking a turn to using unmanned systems. "In an in-air demonstration in 2007, DARPA teamed up with NASA to show that high-performance aircraft can easily perform automated refueling from conventional tankers., the successful test helped pave the way for future unmanned high-altitude long-endurance aircraft that can refuel in flight, expanding their mission capabilities and range." (DARPA, 2015)
In flight refueling is needed for such drones as the Predator and the Global Hawk, yet for rotary wing UAVs (as the ones mostly used by civilian pilots) refueling is not needed but more of recharging the battery on board. Solar panels would be a prime use for continual flight, another idea is having the UAV return to a recharging station once the UAVs' battery drops to a certain percentage or to have the battery swapped out. This would remove the human involvement of bringing the UAV down and recharging the vehicle.
This projected wireless recharging would allow for continual flight and less human intervention on the drones recharging itself. As technology increases and these refueling/recharging techniques so will the endurance and rate time of the UAVs mission.
References:
AeroWeb | MQ-1/MQ-9 predator/reaper. (2016, June 27). Retrieved November 13, 2016, from http://www.bga-aeroweb.com/Defense/MQ-1-Predator-MQ-9-Reaper.html
DARPA, Autonomous High Altitude Refueling. (2015). Retrieved November 13, 2016, from http://www.darpa.mil/about-us/timeline/autonomous-highaltitude-refueling
Jonathan. (2016, March 2). Drones globe. Retrieved November 13, 2016, from Buying guides, http://www.dronesglobe.com/guide/long-flight-time
Junaid, A. B., Lee, Y., & Kim, Y. (2016). Design and implementation of autonomous wireless charging station for rotary-wing UAVs. Aerospace Science and Technology, 54, 253–266. doi:10.1016/j.ast.2016.04.023
Panagiotou, P., Tsavlidis, I., & Yakinthos, K. (2016). Conceptual design of a hybrid solar MALE UAV. Aerospace Science and Technology, 53, 207–219. doi:10.1016/j.ast.2016.03.023
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have come a long way from the civilian use of "drones" for personal entertainment such as hobby drone flyers, movie entertainment filming, and topography mapping, to the military use of surveillance and target neutralization. The benefits of UAVs include the lack of a crew, the ability to operate in hazardous conditions, the cost saving from these previous benefits and the increased endurance of drones are all major benefits. Endurance is one of the most sought after attribute when purchasing or using any UAV. Endurance time for most .personal UAVs for the high end models can range any where from 20 minutes (TRAXXAS 7908 ATON) to 26 minutes (DJI Phantom 4). (Jonathan, 2016) For military UAVs the endurance of these vehicles far overcome their civilian counterpart. The maximum endurance for the RQ-4 Global Hawk is around 35 hours, as where the MQ-1 and the MQ-9 Predator drones endurance is a max of 40 hours of continuous flight time. (“AeroWeb | MQ-1/MQ-9 predator/reaper,” 2016)
As the use of UAVs becomes more persistent, so does the outlook to different methods to continuing longer flight time for these vehicles and the ability to recharge or refuel them without the need of human intervention. One such attempt is by outfitting a UAV with solar panel "Solar panels installed on the external surfaces of the aerial vehicle collect the power from the sun during daylight and transfer it to the aircraft's batteries, which in turn power the propulsion systems and the electro-optical equipment of the aircraft. The panels and the batteries have to be appropriately sized, in order to ensure that there is enough energy surplus available to power the vehicle during the night i.e. when the sunlight is absent." (Panagiotou, Tsavlidis, & Yakinthos, 2016). This implication of a solar power to supply energy to the vehicle is an interesting one since it could potentially allow for "eternal" flight of the craft, where it would only need to land for repairs and upgrades.
The use of solar panels as the moment could not support the lift and thrust needed by military grade UAVs, for main the main circuit components of the craft, solar panels may be a great source for power. Yet for the main take off and continual movement of the vehicles this still would require the use of jet fuel. Though refueling of military drones is taking a turn to using unmanned systems. "In an in-air demonstration in 2007, DARPA teamed up with NASA to show that high-performance aircraft can easily perform automated refueling from conventional tankers., the successful test helped pave the way for future unmanned high-altitude long-endurance aircraft that can refuel in flight, expanding their mission capabilities and range." (DARPA, 2015)
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| (DARPA, 2015) |
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| (Junaid, Lee, & Kim, 2016) |
This projected wireless recharging would allow for continual flight and less human intervention on the drones recharging itself. As technology increases and these refueling/recharging techniques so will the endurance and rate time of the UAVs mission.
References:
AeroWeb | MQ-1/MQ-9 predator/reaper. (2016, June 27). Retrieved November 13, 2016, from http://www.bga-aeroweb.com/Defense/MQ-1-Predator-MQ-9-Reaper.html
DARPA, Autonomous High Altitude Refueling. (2015). Retrieved November 13, 2016, from http://www.darpa.mil/about-us/timeline/autonomous-highaltitude-refueling
Jonathan. (2016, March 2). Drones globe. Retrieved November 13, 2016, from Buying guides, http://www.dronesglobe.com/guide/long-flight-time
Junaid, A. B., Lee, Y., & Kim, Y. (2016). Design and implementation of autonomous wireless charging station for rotary-wing UAVs. Aerospace Science and Technology, 54, 253–266. doi:10.1016/j.ast.2016.04.023
Panagiotou, P., Tsavlidis, I., & Yakinthos, K. (2016). Conceptual design of a hybrid solar MALE UAV. Aerospace Science and Technology, 53, 207–219. doi:10.1016/j.ast.2016.03.023
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