298
China’s ‘land aircraft carrier’ charges flying drone with microwave beam (www.scmp.com)
submitted 6 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
73 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Scientists in China have demonstrated a wireless power transmission system that uses a ground-based microwave emitter to beam energy to an antenna array mounted on the aircraft’s underside. Importantly, they were able to do this while both the drone and charging system were in motion.

In tests, the car-mounted system kept fixed-wing drones in the air for up to 3.1 hours at an altitude of 15 metres (49 feet). The key challenge that the team overcame was maintaining alignment between the emitter and the drone during flight, wrote Song Liwei, the project’s leader.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 1 point 6 months ago

I'll be honest, I didn't exactly proof read every word either.

I think what they meant with parabolic reflector is the reciever. They mentioned they 3d printed a reciever to achieve recors breaking efficency (short range). It's not so easy to gather and convert the microwaves into electric energy. And it's probably not very easy to create a concentrated beam either.

But that was my interpretation. I'm not going to pretend I understand everything about this. I could be wrong.

I think the technology to have satellites charge drones in the sky is at least 50 years away.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent