• UAVs powered by lasers developed by LaserMotive

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    Unmanned aerial vehicles don’t usually stay up in the skies too long, taken that they have a short battery life. Well, with help from the sun, these vehicles can stay up a bit longer, like Qinetiq’s Zephyr that stayed up for a good 82 hours. The sun doesn’t shine all the time, as we all know, and solar powered UAVs can have a hard time staying up at night. With the latest development by LaserMotive, a Seattle based Research Company, UAVs can now stay up a lot longer, without the sun or any fuel, using just energy from lasers. The firm came up with a laser-powered model helicopter weighing 22 grams, tethered and radio controlled. The helicopter is powered by an array of semiconductor-diode near-infrared lasers producing laser beams combined into a single 7 centimeter in diameter beam. This beam when focused on the helicopters photovoltaic cells, juices them up.


    This sure is an innovative idea that could just strike up a greener future for UAVs using alternative energy sources instead of relying on fossil fuels and the like.
    [Physorg]

    Posted in Topics:Alternative Energy, Tags: , on September 10, 2010