A company that won a NASA prize for beaming power to a climber in a space-elevator competition is targeting unmanned aircraft as an initial application for its laser-based technology.
LaserMotive says power beaming could extend the endurance of electrically powered UAVs. The company plans to fly a small internally funded demonstrator by year’s end.
Comments
Lighthouse dev llc
http://www.lhdev.com
LaserMotive is a Seattle-based company developing laser power beaming systems to transmit electricity without wires, for applications where wires are either cost prohibitive or physically impractical. As our first project, we won $900,000 in the NASA-sponsored Power Beaming competition, part of the Space Elevator Games.
LaserMotive is founded on our belief in laser power beaming as a “powerful” solution for a variety of applications, near-term and in the future, in space and on the Earth. Recent advances in commercial laser technology are bringing many exciting applications within the reach of economic and technical viability, from powering unmanned aerial vehicles to launching rockets via laser power to beaming limitless solar energy from space to the Earth. The Power Beaming Challenge has been an excellent first step along LaserMotive’s path to demonstrating the physical and economic viability of laser power beaming.
Team Lasermotive Qualifies for a Share of the $900,000 NASA Power Beaming PrizeJust imagine, you could fly in a 30x30m field, with your drone being recharged whilst circling. That would be awesome.
No more landing at the rc-field guys, just fly all the helis and planes to the landing pad at the back, and pick it up after 20 minutes ;-)