Advance of UAV Power Supply Technology

# Advance in UAV Power Technology

In recent years, with the rapid development of UAV technology, it has been widely used in military, commercial, scientific research and other fields. However, the endurance of UAV has been a key factor restricting its wide application. To this end, the global scientific research team has made a lot of exploration and innovation in UAV power technology, and made a series of breakthroughs. This article will focus on the latest advances in UAV power technology, covering innovations in hydrogen hybrid power, solar power technology, and new battery materials.

## Hydrogen hybrid power supply: a major breakthrough in endurance

On the way to solve the problem of UAV endurance, hydrogen hybrid power supply has become an eye-catching new direction. The National Key Laboratory of Catalytic Energy Conversion, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences recently successfully tested an industrial-grade UAV equipped with a self-developed high-specific-energy hydrogen hybrid power supply. This scientific research achievement has effectively solved the problem of short endurance of industrial-grade UAVs and brought breakthrough progress to the UAV industry.

The hydrogen hybrid power supply has the advantages of high specific energy, high reliability and wide temperature range. The team adopted a systematic full-chain research and development model to develop a fuel cell and lithium-ion coupling power supply system, which enabled the specific energy of the power supply to reach 600 watt-hours per kilogram, supporting normal use at ambient temperatures of minus 20 ℃ to 40 ℃. This not only significantly improves the endurance of the UAV, but also broadens its application scenarios, especially in extreme weather conditions.

In the future, the team will continue to develop the next generation of hydrogen hybrid power supply technology. It plans to combine high specific power reactor design technology and high energy density hydrogen source technology to make the specific energy of the power supply exceed 800 watt-hours per kilogram and broaden the application ambient temperature range to minus 40 ℃ to 60 ℃. This technological innovation will further enhance the endurance and environmental adaptability of UAVs, and provide strong support for the application of UAVs in a wider range of fields.

## Solar Power Technology: A New Path to Green Life

As a clean and renewable energy source, solar energy also shows great potential in the field of UAV power supply. The scientific research team of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics successfully developed a solar powered micro UAV weighing only 4.21 grams by using a new type of electrostatic motor independently developed, realizing continuous flight under pure natural light energy supply. This achievement not only breaks through the technical bottleneck of micro UAV in terms of endurance, but also shows the broad application prospect of solar power supply technology in the field of UAV.

The team innovatively proposed a new type of electrostatic drive scheme, and developed a miniature electrostatic motor with low speed, low heat generation and high efficiency, which enables the power system to reduce heat loss and efficiently convert the electric energy generated by solar cells into kinetic energy. At the same time, the team also developed an ultra-lightweight high-voltage power converter weighing only 1.13 grams, which increased the voltage generated by the solar cells from about 4.5 volts to 9000 volts, further improving the efficiency of the solar power supply system.

This kind of solar powered micro UAV has the ability to fly for a long time, and has a wide application prospect in emergency rescue, narrow space detection and other scenes in the future. With the continuous advancement of solar power supply technology, solar-driven drones are expected to achieve large-scale applications in more fields and promote the green development of the drone industry.

## New battery material: battery life upgrade

In addition to hydrogen hybrid power supply and solar power supply technology, the research and development of new battery materials also provides important support for the improvement of UAV endurance performance. The Fudan University team used high-pressure optical floating zone technology to successfully grow three layers of nickel oxide and confirmed the pressure-induced bulk superconductivity in nickel oxide. This discovery provides new ideas for the development of new high-temperature superconductors, and also provides new possibilities for the innovation of UAV battery materials.

The application of high-temperature superconductors in battery materials can significantly improve the energy density and charge and discharge efficiency of the battery, thereby extending the endurance of the UAV. Although this technology is still in the laboratory stage, its potential application prospects are expected. In the future, with the continuous maturity and commercial application of high temperature superconducting technology, the performance of UAV batteries will be further improved,