Flexible Solar Panel Wings Could One Day Let Robot Birds Fly Forever

hawk , eagles , and other birds of prey have been known to stay aloft for hr on end using a strategical commixture of flapping and gliding . automatic birds can do the same , except that they ca n’t replenish their batteries by nobble a mid - flight snack . However , researcher at theUniversity of Marylandare perfecting a set of compromising solar prison cell wings that could allow for flying bots to stay aloft indefinitely , as long as they get a peep at the Sunday every so often .

What ’s peculiarly cagy about integrate solar panels into the hiss ’s wings is that they add minimum weight — at least compared to just tack them onto its body — and less weighting mean the Robo Raven postulate less energy to stay airborne . That ’s important moving forth since the researchers still have n’t quite bridge the col between the robot ’s energy needs and what the solar wings produce .

In its current phase the Robo Raven ’s motors depict about 30 watts of mogul , while the solar cells in its wing only produce about 3.6 W , which is a evenhandedly large discrepancy . But as the energy yield from its fender is increase in succeeding generations , while the efficiency of its motors is improved , eventually it will break off even and the bird will — at least in possibility — be capable to fly forever once it ’s launch . And in the humanity of self-directed drones , that ’s the brass halo . [ University of MarylandviaPursuit of Unorthodox IdeasviaIEEE Spectrum ]