26/4/2024: The DJI Agras T50 was just announced for the Australian market. See details here.
26/4/2024: To see the T50 bundles and pricing, go here.
From a distance it looks like almost any other drone
But a larger black panel on a prototype developed by an Auckland startup makes this one a little different, in a big way.
"We're one of the few companies in the world to deliver this technology for light-based energy transmission," said Aquila CEO and co-founder William Jeremijenko.
It's light that is invisible to the eye.
But they're using it to charge the drone while it flies, opening the doors for a raft of possibilities in the future.
"You can imagine having this on agricultural sites or mining sites where you got a love moving platforms." Jeremijenko told 1News
"They need an energy source and you can have that energy supplied continuously by beams of light"
The ultimate goal. as he puts it, is to make an "internet of energy" - a network of satellites to send power from where it's generated to where it's needed.
Eventually they hope to send power to electric planes flying internationally.
"So with this directed energy capability you can all of a sudden create these networks that can serve any imaginable application." Jeremijenko said.
And the hope is it can be done within a decade, helping along by AUD $3 million recently secured in funding.
Making it large-scale and safe
"The reason why no-one has done this yet is because it is just that hard." fellow co-founder Nelson Smith told 1News
"There are dozens of really difficult technical problems that have only recently become fundamentally soveable."
A lot of people have tried, Smith said.
their solution involves a "lighthouse" module that can direct a beam of light to a receiver, in this case on the prototype drone.
The receiver is in effect a specialised solar panel that can work with the specialised light.
It can deliver more than what solar can.
The "Lighthouse" module on the drone
"So think of autonomous aerial vehicles, or boats, or submarines just staying forever, that's the goal" Smith said.
"The biggest reasons we can't transition to renewables is electrical propulsion just isn't good enough yet"
"However if we can charge things mid-flight suddenly all those barriers just evaporate"
The team is working to make safety a key part of the whole design.
"For me to put it in front of people , it has to be safe... we have to be so confident that it's not even going to hurt a bird, let alone a person." said Smith "And it's working beautifully so far"
Potential game changer
The drone in flight
Victoria University sustainable energy professor Alan Brent told 1News a number of companies are working on the technology.
"It's definitely a potential game changer in the power", he said.
He said serving communities in difficult terrain in difficult times could be key winners.
"Definitely for communities in topography that's very difficult to install and maintain lines if we have disasters, or earthquakes, or cyclone events - they won't disrupted using this kind of technology" he said.
Cushla McGoverin from the Dodd-Walls Centre for Photonic and Quantum Technologies calls it "solar power, amped up"
"If you don't have to bring your drone down to charge it every few hours? The potential advantage of that is massive." She said.
"In events like disaster events when you're trying to find things, agriculture is starting to use drones - it's just massivem the potential applications"
