This is an understandable problem. A lot of things have been invented for the military, both in the form of drones and in the form of wearable gadgets, but, as always, batteries remain the weakest point. Here, with photo and video equipment, you will torture yourself to charge the batteries, and in field conditions, as soon as stocks run out, that's it, a pipe. And it ends, as always, at the wrong moment. And if you imagine military operations, drones, devices, equipment - no one will take a break to charge batteries.
So, the US Navy wants to develop drones that run on electricity that they absorb directly in the battlefield. In other words, such a drone would steal energy directly from power lines.
In armed conflicts of the future, most likely, a lot of small drones will be involved - either operating in swarms during a massive attack, or included in the personal equipment of a soldier and used for reconnaissance. However, small drones have a small battery that lasts about half an hour of flight, and it is not so easy to find a power source for recharging in combat conditions.
"The possibilities of the future mass use of BLS (small UAVs) in combat conditions may be very limited due to the constant need to recharge many batteries," said representatives of the US Navy. “Drone operations will continue to grow in intensity and duration. Therefore, the ability to receive electricity from sources located directly in the combat zone will be an important military technology of dual use, which can also be used for civilian purposes."
Let's say the fighting is in an urban setting, with electric poles and wires on every street. This gives drones the ability to "absorb power by docking directly to power lines and continue on missions, which would provide the drone with a significant tactical advantage." In search of a technical solution to such a docking, the US naval command has already turned to industrial companies and scientists.
"If there are power supplies in the area of the combat mission, this allows the drones to continuously, without having to return to the base, carry out the mission until its very completion."
“There are many ways drones absorb energy. It is possible to use the energy of vibrations, electromagnetic and conventional mechanical energy,”the US military said.
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"The sources of the available electromagnetic energy absorbed and transformed by drones can be high-voltage substations, transformers and AC lines."
The strength of the magnetic field generated by electrical substations is quite comparable to the energy of solar panels on a cloudy day. The military proposes to place wireless sensors in the area of power nodes that allow drones to accumulate energy and "drain" it, allowing them to remain fully charged continuously.
In the imagination, flocks of drones immediately appear, placed on electric wires like doves. A drone capable of feeding on the energy of the enemy will be able to conduct combat operations as long as its mechanism can withstand - at the expense of the enemy.