A group of researchers in northwest China said it has developed a way to use high-energy laser beams not to destroy drones but to keep them in the air “forever,” SCMP reported.
Many countries, including China, are developing powerful laser systems to combat drones. But Professor Li Xuelong and his colleagues at Northwestern Polytechnic University (NPU) have taken a different approach to the relationship between drones and lasers.
In their view, if the drone is equipped with a photovoltaic conversion module that converts light energy into electricity, the high-energy laser beam could not only track it, but also power it remotely.
A team from NPU’s School of Artificial Intelligence, Optics and Electronics said a recent experiment successfully combined an autonomous charging process with intelligent signal transmission and processing technology, demonstrating the unlimited endurance potential of optically-driven drones (ODDs).
According to the researchers, the first task was to track the drones in the air. The team developed a tracking algorithm based on intelligent visuals to track and accurately predict ODD targets as they flew.
The algorithm had good resistance to light, scale, and rotation, was stable in a variety of conditions, and provided accurate drone positioning.
To increase the wireless power transmission distance, Lee and his team needed to reduce the attenuation of a traditional laser beam in the atmosphere. Their solution, they said, was adaptive beam shaping technology that could autonomously adjust its intensity. The adjustment meant that the negative effects of air turbulence and changes in atmospheric density could be reduced, increasing the efficiency and reliability of long-range laser energy delivery.
A safety algorithm has also been added to the system that automatically adjusts the laser power to a safe range when an obstacle is detected in the beam path.
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