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CoulombFly Solar-Powered Micro Aerial Vehicle Weighs 4.1 Grams
Behold the amazing CoulombFly, an electrostatic flyer that can stay aloft as long as the sun shines (longer with battery, under development).
(ArticleSunlight-powered sustained flight of an ultralight micro aerial vehicle)
Limited flight duration is a considerable obstacle to the widespread application of micro aerial vehicles (MAVs), especially for ultralightweight MAVs weighing less than 10 g, which, in general, have a flight endurance of no more than 10 minutes. Sunlight power is a potential alternative to improve the endurance of ultralight MAVs, but owing to the restricted payload capacity of the vehicle and low lift-to-power efficiency of traditional propulsion systems, previous studies have not achieved untethered sustained flight of MAVs fully powered by natural sunlight.Here, to address these challenges, we introduce the CoulombFly, an electrostatic flyer consisting of an electrostatic-driven propulsion system with a high lift-to-power efficiency of 30.7 g W−1 and an ultralight kilovolt power system with a low power consumption of 0.568 W, to realize solar-powered sustained flight of an MAV under natural sunlight conditions (920W m−2). The vehicle’s total mass is only 4.21 g, within 1/600 of the existing lightest sunlight-powered aerial vehicle.
Science fiction fans recall that Neal Stephenson alerted them to the possibility that this idea might come to exist in his 1995 novel The Diamond Age:
...then Bud made himself scarce, because the monitors - almond-sized aerostats with eyes, ears, and radios - had probably picked up the sound of the explosion and begun converging on the attack. He saw one hiss by him as he rounded the corner, trailing a short whip antenna that caught the light like a hairline crack in the atmosphere.Aerostat meant anything that hung in the air. This was an easy trick to pull off nowadays. Nanotech materials were stronger. Computers were infinitesimal. Power supplies were much more potent...a device built with several thrusters pointed along different axes could remain in one position or indeed navigate through space.
(Read more about Neal Stephenson's aerostat. monitor)
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