Tech Inspired By Nikola Tesla Charges Drones In Mid-Air

[BADecker]

Tech Inspired By Nikola Tesla Charges Drones In Mid-Air

Everything that flies must eventually land. Unless, say, it's an all-electric drone that can recharge while in flight. Researchers at Imperial College London have demonstrated a way to transfer electricity wireless to a flying drone. Even better: they did so building on a concept pioneered by Nikola Tesla.

From Imperial College London:

The technology uses inductive coupling, a concept initially demonstrated by inventor Nikola Tesla over 100 years ago. Two copper coils are tuned into one another, using electronics, which enables the wireless exchange of power at a certain frequency. Scientists have been experimenting with this technology for decades, but have not been able to wirelessly power flying technology.

Removing the battery from an off-the-shelf drone, the researchers attached a copper ring to the drone's electronics.

Read more at http://www.popsci.com/nikola-tesla-inspired-tech-powers-drone-in-mid-air-using.

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[Gleb Gamow]

Fuck you, BADecker! You find all the good stuff on the Internet first, not giving us mere mortals a chance. 

[ZACHM]

So, the idea is really cool. But, it really is just the same wireless charging that most phones use now.
Obviously a little more powerful, but the max separation is 4 inches.
So its not like they are beaming the power 50 or 100 feet up to a drone.
The drone would essentially have to land on a charging pad.

[ilyasbeler]

if this can implemented to real helicopter so it can fly long time time without landing
so cool to see it

[LoyceV]

4 inches away from the charger is better than being plugged into it

I wouldn't call this "in Mid-Air". It's just hovering above a charging station, and if you're there hovering anyway, it will be a lot more efficient to land, turn of the rotors, and charge.

I see a different application: with 4 inches distance this could be used to charger electric cars on a highway! The article doesn't mention the overall efficiency, so I assume quite low. And that has always been the (fundamental) problem with "wireless charging": the transfer efficiency goes down exponentially with increasing distance.

[ZACHM]

I don't know if you would be able to do much charging while driving.
But if they installed them in the roads at stop lights, then electric cars could gain some charge while waiting for the light to change.
It would be hard to have things line up over the sweet spot though. 

[Indijanos]

Can't wait for this tech to be implemented in sidewalks and charge smartphones while walking down the streets.

[Gleb Gamow]

Can't wait for this tech to be implemented in sidewalks and charge smartphones while walking down the streets.

If only there were a way to harness the energy from the sun during daylight hours to be used at night or in dark places. I'm not an MIT dude, but I thinkin' some sort of battery to store the power after the sun does its thing on some TBD device might accomplish the same feat.

Hey, wait! I have a better idea. Since those helicopter blades are spinning, simply hook them up to generators akin to windmills, again, storing the created power on some sort of batteries. Since these are drones, ergo no pilots or passengers, put the batteries in the space where those people would normally sit.

I'm such a fuckin' genius ever since I discovered another use for them intake jets in hot tubs.

[startselect]

Are there rules against posting the whole article in the OP?

[startselect]

Can't wait for this tech to be implemented in sidewalks and charge smartphones while walking down the streets.

Yeah, but who's going to pay for the electricity?

[4x4et]

Nikola Tesla was and is the world's greatest man who ever lived on Earth. Somebody says that he was an alien too (maybe because he didn't want to have a girlfriend at all, just pigeons  ).

He was so modest, that he didn't want to patent almost any of his revelations, which were then exploited by Edison.

You can read it more detailed here.

Great graphic article about Tesla and Edison:
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla

[Spoetnik]

Interesting !
I like the recharging idea for Heli's too Gleb !
And well all know what "other" purpose those hot-tub jets have

In a related story i recently seen a video of a Drone that is able to launch then track and fly after another drone then fire a net at it catching it then scoop it up hanging by a rope etc and then fly back and land with it's victim.. all automated.

[SparkedDev]

The street idea that many were talking about seems like a good idea but wouldn't the cars need shielding to prevent it from messing with your brain?
I know some people where trying to figure out how to make it so their drones could output for energy by using the sun for drone races.

[BADecker]

Electromagnetic Harvesters: Free Lunch or Theft!

Energy refers to the amount of work that a system can perform. According to this definition free energy is a logical impossibility. Your car, for example, cannot burn more gasoline than you put into it. Our recent reports on electromagnetic harvesters have led to the question: are they stealing electricity?

Apparently this is the case. A farmer in Idaho had a barn located near high power lines and noticed that baling wire he kept in his barn was conducting small amounts of electricity. After some investigation he built  induction coils and began to run his house off of it. Power company equipment detected the drain of energy and went to investigate. The farmer was arrested for using electricity from the power company without a meter.

In another case...

Read more at http://www.industrytap.com/electromagnetic-harvesters-free-lunch-or-theft/1805.

[BADecker]

WiTricity Charges Forward with Wireless Electricity

The world disposes of 40 billion batteries each year; many lay corroding in dumps, polluting ground water.  And take one look under your desk and you might get an idea of how entangled the world is in electric wire.  Now imagine if mobile phones, home electronic devices, computers, electric cars and airplanes, robots and implanted medical devices could be powered without wires, batteries or fuel!  Imagine walking down the street or driving along a highway and never seeing another electric transmission pole or wire!

A Massachusetts company called WiTricity, hatched at MIT, has scores of patents relating to the transmission of electrical energy  wirelessly to all of these objects and devices via “resonant energy transfer.”



“Resonant energy transfer” cannot be discussed without first bringing up the name and work of Nicola Tesla, a Serb who immigrated to the US in 1856 and worked for a time with Edison designing and creating electrical equipment.

Read more at http://www.industrytap.com/witricity-charges-forward-with-wireless-electricity/574.

[SparkedDev]

Ill check those out.

[BADecker]

Imagine induction powered specialty drones, powered by the high tension lines they are working on, doing this job:

Helicopter Power Line Maintenance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh8Zu5_0Am0

[vatahbokek]

Imagine induction powered specialty drones, powered by the high tension lines they are working on, doing this job:

Helicopter Power Line Maintenance
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kh8Zu5_0Am0/hqdefault.jpg?custom=true&w=196&h=110&stc=true&jpg444=true&jpgq=90&sp=68&sigh=gMI-ff3FyqAupx84pKV-Fjvjvn0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh8Zu5_0Am0

very awesome
hope soon can be implemented in daily life

[VadikZimnyayaRezina]

I am sure that the wireless transmission of electric energy in the future will be used everywhere. scientists currently invented it, but can not be implemented. They forbid it to do large corporations that are not profitable

[Spoetnik]

Health needs to be studied..
We are ALREADY saturated beyond belief with transmissions coming from everything imaginable.
We are polluting the living shit out of Earth with shit we can't see with our eyes so we don't give a fuck.

Whether it's light pollution or sound pollution or various energy forms we are getting seriously carried away with it all and not thinking about the consequences other than Facebook'ing faster etc..

You all should already know about the Clash of WIFI signals and channel issues.
You can see on most adapters for 20 years now the error correction stats.. dropped and re-transmitted packets etc.
The WIFI routers in a neighborhood have to flood each other to get their signal through.

Last decade+ every place i have moved to around town has had a dozen routers.. different ones depending on which direction i point the antennae at.
Do you all realize how much wasted bandwidth that amounts to ?
I looked at my WIFI card right now and it has over half a million packets re-transmitted.. and lots of "errors"
Which is my device receiving packets for another device.

What exactly do you all think this does to our brains ?

And did you see the topic on Malware that is transmitted via a PC speaker or mic ?
Having things over-the-air will create more security issues too.

People have heart attacks and die from CME's from the sun people..