Autonomy, one of the biggest obstacles that drones face today. 20 minutes? 30 minutes? The flight time of the drones round these figures, even the most professional ones. But instead of stopping their flight to change the battery, a startup has thought about loading them into the air.
Global Energy Transmission is a company that, although not very ingenious with the name, has proposed to get the drones to fly indefinitely. Or at least, that autonomy is not one of the problems to stay in the air. His idea is to load the drones on the fly in a completely wireless way.
"Gas Stations" For Drones
These stations where the drones can replenish energies allow a drone to be loaded in 6 minutes to offer 25 minutes of flight. Each station is not limited to one drone, but multiple drones can be loaded at the same time. The energy is transmitted several meters (up to eight) away so with stations like this one installed at key points, the drones could be supplied automatically without touching the ground at any time.
Is it safe for people to be close to something like that? The company indicates that it can be one meter from the charging station as long as desired. It does not exceed the levels of exposure to recommended magnetic and electric fields.
Expensive and with limitations
The system to create the magnetic field and two drones equipped with batteries and antennas of GET has a cost of $ 120,000. The product is intended more for research and business than for the final consumer. We can also get an idea of how expensive it is for something like this to produce it en masse.These stations where the drones can replenish energies allow a drone to be loaded in 6 minutes to offer 25 minutes of flight. Each station is not limited to one drone, but multiple drones can be loaded at the same time. The energy is transmitted several meters (up to eight) away so with stations like this one installed at key points, the drones could be supplied automatically without touching the ground at any time.
This charging method will remain inefficient as long as it is not faster than landing the drone, changing the battery and taking it off again. Since the drone has to interrupt its activity to recharge, what else does it do if it lands or stays in the air? However, it can be a promising technology to develop systems that overcome limitations such as staying at a non-mobile point or the load time itself.
Other systems, for example, are faster, such as Airobotics, their drones can change battery autonomously without the intervention of a person. There are also ideas to load drones on the fly, with a system similar to that of airplanes, where another drone comes to the rescue to replace the one that does not have any energy left. Although at the moment, perhaps landing the drone and replacing its battery is still the best option.
The London Heathrow airport paralyzes its departures for a possible drone sighting
Heathrow, the largest airport in London has stopped its departures as a precautionary measure for a drone sighting.
It happened at Christmas at the second largest airport in London and now it is Heathrow, the most important airport in the British capital that has had to stop its flights out. According to what has been announced, it is the response as a precautionary measure to a possible drone sighting flying near the airport.
Drones, although small compared to an airplane, can be a great danger for the takeoff and landing of commercial aircraft. As much as to cause the temporary closure of an airport and to deploy the army in order to finish them off. In Gatwick more than 800 flights were canceled a few weeks ago and chaos took over the facilities.
No take-offs as a precaution
In the case of Heathrow for the moment, no such situation has been reached, but they have warned that there is a drone sighting during this afternoon. As a precautionary measure, the next take-offs have been stopped until the situation is solved or under control.
As indicated by the account of the airport on Twitter, for the moment they have stopped the departures from the airport. It is not clear if in the next hours the arrivals will also stop, although we will be attentive to it.
The airport has indicated that takeoffs have resumed while officials continue to work with local authorities to monitor the situation.
This radar, funded by Bill Gates, would be able to detect drones in real time and test it during the Super Bowl
Drones have become a real headache for security agencies in various regions of the world, just look at the case of Gatwick Airport in London, which recently had to stop operations twice due to drone sightings that flew over restricted airspace.
Everything is ready for the Super Bowl LIII this coming Sunday, February 3 in Atlanta, and for security measures, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI have declared the Mercedes-Benz Stadium and its vicinity as zones of zero tolerance for drones. To achieve this, for the first time they will use a pair of radars that will help with this work, which have been developed by a startup funded by Bill Gates.
Echodyne will work with the FBI to keep the Super Bowl free of drones
Today there are various ways to track a drone and even knock it down, however, there is no efficient method that can claim that there are drones flying in restricted areas, and that is almost always taken when pilots or air traffic controllers report sightings.
This is where Echodyne enters, the startup that has the support of Bill Gates, who claims that his radars are capable of detecting, tracking and identifying flying objects up to a kilometer away, where the interesting thing is that he could even differentiate between drones possibly dangerous and birds, balloons or any other flying object. In addition, it is the size of a paperback.
This information would be obtained in real time and would be sent to the devices that block the control or navigation signals of the drone, in order to knock it down and end the risk. Another advantage is that each radar has an approximate price of $ 150,000, which is up to 20 times cheaper than the Israeli military radar system that would have been installed in Gatwick, this with the aim of avoiding the dangers of drones not authorized
For the Super Bowl, Echodyne seeks to install two of its radars that would be operated in the company of the FBI, and is that the startup has the support of the United States Navy, NASA and the Department of Homeland Security, which has helped develop their technology, which would be based, as they explain, on "metamaterials", which would be complex and repetitive structures capable of manipulating electromagnetic waves and directing radio signals with precision.
Here we must mention that neither Echodyne nor the FBI have confirmed this installation, since everything arises from an emergency request submitted to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on January 18. However, due to the federal closure in the United States, the request is delayed and they are waiting for approval, although all the paints will be authorized in time to implement the radars this Sunday.
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