Development Prospect of Solar-powered UAV

In order to meet the application needs of different fields, the types of unmanned aerial vehicles have become more diverse and abundant, and solar unmanned aerial vehicles have also emerged. The solar-powered UAV refers to UAV that use solar energy as the power source. This kind of unmanned aerial vehicle has the characteristics of ultra-long flight time, long-lasting space, ultra-high flight, extensive operation, etc.
With its own significant advantages, solar unmanned aerial vehicles are widely used in both military and civilian aspects, and their value is comparable to quasi-satellite. In real life, many countries use solar unmanned aerial vehicles for Atmospheric Research, weather forecast, environmental and disaster monitoring, traffic control monitoring, Internet services, television services and military purposes, it has brought many conveniences to people’s production and life.
Picture
However, the best landing scenario for solar unmanned aerial vehicles is undoubtedly communication. Solar unmanned aerial vehicles have four value-added significance for communication development. One is to enhance existing communication services by acting as air base stations; The other is to supplement blind communication in remote areas; The third is that in case of sudden disasters, provide emergency communication; The fourth is to meet the remote relay communication between the military and the civilian sides.
Based on the above communication value, there are also many countries in the world that use solar unmanned aerial vehicles. Among them, the United States and the United Kingdom were the first two players to enter the game. The former developed “Perseus” and “altaas” solar unmanned aerial vehicles many years ago, the latter also developed the breeze “and” West Wind “series solar unmanned aerial vehicles early.
After these two countries, the development of China’s solar unmanned aerial vehicles has gradually started. In 2016, the “phantom solar unmanned aerial vehicle” developed by China West University of Technology was born, which opened the prelude to the development of domestic solar unmanned aerial vehicles. After that, the “Feiyun” project was successfully opened and “Mozi II” successfully made its first flight, all indicate that China has achieved remarkable results in the development of solar unmanned aerial vehicles.
On the whole, there are a large number of countries entering the development of solar unmanned aerial vehicles. Countries, including Britain, America, China, Japan and South Korea, are accelerating technology research and development and application testing. Competition among countries is becoming more and more fierce, and the gap between players is also narrowing. However, despite this, we still need to see that the current development of global solar unmanned aerial vehicles is still relatively primary and the development speed is not fast enough.
Because the flying height and application of solar unmanned aerial vehicles are obviously different from those of ordinary unmanned aerial vehicles, their performance requirements are also completely different. For solar unmanned aerial vehicles, how can they have a lasting power source? How to work stably in high air? It is a problem of the relationship between all players, but at present, the battery technology and payload of solar unmanned aerial vehicles still have restrictions.
Although solar unmanned aerial vehicles are powered by solar energy, how to collect and convert solar energy more efficiently and store solar energy are the difficulties to make breakthroughs. In addition, because the solar unmanned aerial vehicle is under the sun for a long time, the high temperature resistance and tensile resistance of the battery are also facing challenges, all of which call for more advanced battery technology to appear.
In addition to technical limitations, payload is also another problem that solar unmanned aerial vehicles need to solve. Solar unmanned aerial vehicles need to carry many equipment for aerial work, which requires high load. However, in reality, solar unmanned aerial vehicles in most countries cannot carry large equipment, which greatly reduces their practicability and further hinders the large-scale commercial process.
Based on this, facing the hot situation of global power, solar unmanned aerial vehicles need to break through the key core technologies in the future in order to fly to a wider world.