Chinese team’s solar-powered drone is lighter than paper plane, offers sustained flight
- Article in Nature cites breakthrough by Beihang University team as capable of forging ‘a path to new kinds of tiny aerial vehicles’
The Beijing-based team overcame long-standing motor efficiency and power issues to create the palm-sized device, which they said could greatly expand the potential of such micro aerial vehicles, or MAVs.
Weighing just over 4 grams (0.14oz) and with a wingspan of 20cm (about 8 inches), the drone is lighter than a paper plane and 1/600th the weight of the lightest solar-powered MAV, according to its developers from the school of energy and power engineering at Beihang University.
Peer-reviewed journal Nature welcomed the breakthrough, saying in an independent article on Wednesday that it “could forge a path to new kinds of tiny aerial vehicles”.
The same issue also carried a paper from the developers explaining their findings.
According to the paper, the small size, lightness and high mobility of MAVs allows them to be used in a wide range of applications – from environmental rescue and monitoring to information collection in confined spaces.