The Future of Drone Technology: Wireless Drone Charging Stations
Drone technology is rapidly evolving as new industries and sectors discover the advantages UAVs can offer. Whether you’re a commercial farm seeking an accurate yet efficient way to spray your crops and plant seeds, or an electrical utilities company searching for a safer and faster way to repair power lines, drones could be your answer.
However, many drone enthusiasts cite the limited battery life as a significant obstacle in fully reaching their drones’ potential. Now, a Portland, Oregon-based company is setting out to change that by creating scalable wireless drone charging stations.
The Reality of the Long Range Drone
One of the biggest challenges that those who adopt drones into their systems and supply chains face is the limited power that current drone batteries are able to provide. For most commercial UAVs, the average maximum battery life is about 22 - 27 minutes, at which point you need to land the drone and recharge the battery. This limits the maximum range of the drone as well as the complexity or length of the task you can complete on a single charge.
Global Energy Transmission out of Portland is determined to help drone pilots overcome this challenge with their concept for wireless drone charging stations. These hexagonal stations are wireless ‘hotspots’ that can fully charge a drone in mid-flight in about 6 minutes. The hotspots are easy to set up along your drones’ flight path, can charge multiple drones at once, and are designed to be durable and weather-resistant. To get a charge, the UAV simply needs to hover within the hexagonal hotspot; the system is fully autonomous, with no manual guidance required.
The Benefits of Wireless Drone Charging
A wireless charging hotspot for UAVs is certainly not for the casual drone hobbyist. But, for larger enterprise organizations (let’s just say a massive global online retailer with frequent local deliveries, for example), the opportunity to keep drones in the air for hours at a time is extremely valuable. This extends the range from which they could potentially fly delivery drones (or crop spraying drones, or fogging drones, etc.) and fundamentally change the way they plot their delivery systems.
In the not-too-distant future, don’t be surprised if you come across the construction of wireless charging drone stations in strategically selected locations; these stations may be what refuels the long range drone that drops off your packages someday!
The Experts on Drone Technology
At HSE, we pride ourselves on being the foremost experts on drone technology. That’s why we’ve built our company to be your one-stop-shop for all things drone and UAV, from our products to flight training, compliance and consulting, and more. To request a demo, or to learn how drones and UAVs could potentially apply to your business, give us a call at 309-361-7656 or send us an email today.