SPIE 2011: Laser solution for long-endurance UAVs
A US company pioneering the use of lasers to recharge the batteries of UAVs in flight says such a system could be potentially fielded as early as next year.
LaserMotive is demonstrating the ability to 'power beam' via laser several UAV aircraft, including rotary-wing vehicles, at the 2011 SPIE Defence Security & Sensing exposition in Orlando.
In recent experiments the company was able to keep a rotary-wing quadrocopter UAV constantly airborne for 12 hours. The machine only had a battery endurance of five minutes and would return to the beam in-flight and recharge.
LaserMotive president, Tom Nugent, said: 'We see
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