Toyota engineers designed a drone the size of an insect that can fly without a battery
Engineers at Toyota Central R&D Labs have announced that they have successfully developed and tested a drone that does not exceed an insect in size and waves for flight wings. But the most curious thing is that instead of the built-in battery, a special radio-frequency receiver is used to work in the drone, which allows it to receive a specific power equal to 4900 W / kg.
New insect drone and its capabilities
According to one of the authors of this study, Takashi Ozaki, batteries are the main stumbling block that severely limits the possibilities in the development of miniature drones.
Therefore, scientists decided to determine how effective miniature aircraft will be, which will receive energy from so-called non-contact sources.
So, in the course of laboratory experiments, the engineers decided to use a mechanism consisting of two parts: a 5 GHz dipole antenna and a piezoelectric drive.
Scientists have arranged the parts of the drone so that the elements that heat up during operation are at the maximum possible distance from each other, which means that unnecessary heat losses would not occur.
The result is a miniature aircraft weighing only 1.8 grams, which, for a minute, is 25 times lighter than existing counterparts, which are also powered by radio waves. The engineers also managed to ensure that only one watt of power is enough for the drone to fly.
True, the flight being carried out is not controlled in any way. Therefore, the engineers continue their work and in subsequent versions of the insect drone plan to implement the possibility of hovering in one place, as well as following a strictly specified flight path.
Scientists do not doubt the success of their further work, since this has already been achieved. True, in this case the device was powered from an external power source with an ordinary wire.
Well, the time is not far off when drones of various sizes will literally fill the airspace.
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