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Robot Aircraft To Ride Thermal Air Currents
Robot aircraft have a clever new way to conserve fuel - don't use any. Thermal air
currents have been providing lift to flyers since the dawn of time. Research currently
underway at Roke Manor Research in Hampshire, UK, indicates that this sort of sophisticated flight
can be programmed into autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Their plan is to test the idea
first by using it to offer guidance to pilots of gliders.
Here's how it works. An on-board camera takes video of the surrounding sky; software is used to
analyze the video, looking for gray, dome-shaped clouds that are formed by rapidly rising hot air.
The system is also able to integrate real-time weather forecasts and simulations.
When the system is automated, it should enable a UAV to pilot a course that transverses as many
thermal air currents as possible. The resulting fuel savings is not just a way to "green" robot
aircraft; it will enable longer flights by conserving a scarce resource.
The first place I read about this idea was Roger
Zelazny's admirable 1980 science/fantasy novel Changeling. In the story, small, robot
planes called 'tracer-birds' detect and ride air currents:
...they stirred, almost simultaneously, as if shaken by a sudden breeze. They began to flex their
wings.
Soon, one by one, they dropped from the heights, caught the air, rose, found their way, found
their patterns, resumed their journey...
These science-fictional robot planes were also solar-powered.
If the idea of autonomous robot planes making use of thermal air currents intrigues you, take a
look at another ongoing research effort - the Cloud
Swift Autonomous Soaring Project.
The dark birdforms dotted the mountaintops like statues of prehistoric beasts, wings outspread...
(Read more about Roger Zelazny's tracer-birds)
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 8/21/2008)
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