Polytech has set the records "in between"
In Satbayev University UAV laboratory under Alexey Oxenenko’s leadership, SolarUAV unmanned aerial vehicle that is capable to fly due to the sun energy for 10 hours. For Kazakhstan, it is an absolute record on the duration of a drone flight, and the world flight record is longer just to 23 minutes.
UAV laboratory was organized at the beginning of 2020 and immediately launched many projects, among which there was the project on a solar-powered aircraft. This is a compact aircraft of the "flying wing" type, with a wingspan of just over 2 meters, capable of carrying a commercial payload of up to half a kilogram.
– It was an interesting and complicated project that requires combining many technologies together, - says the project author Alexey Oxenenko. – But it turned out that it is quite real and it is even possible to mass produce them. Now we can construct several dozen solar UAVs a year. However, we did not set out to break the record, it turned out to be "in between".
The main difficulty in designing and building an aircraft is to create a strong and at the same time lightweight and compact body that can withstand heavy loads during flight and simultaneously carry fragile solar cells, avionics and video cameras. Each device carries 50 solar panels and the equipment necessary to receive video and telemetry in real time. Therefore, the aircraft body is made of composite materials with the use of very light and strong fibers.
SolarUAV device can reach speeds of up to 168 km/h and is equipped with backup batteries for up to 2 hours of autonomous operation. For the new UAV, an efficient propulsion system was developed that does not require a large amount of electricity for flight. During the tests, the device flew without landing for 10 hours and 17 seconds, the flight length was 570 km.
Aircraft powered by solar energy are created by large companies, leaders of the aviation industry, such as Airbus. The cost of such projects is estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The Satbayev University project, unlike them, not only demonstrates the possibilities of high technologies, but also is cheaper, and is aimed at commercial purposes as well.
For our country with its impressive territory, such devices are of great practical importance. SolarUAV can take on such tasks as 3D modeling of landscapes, collecting data for mapping, observing animals, searching for people, taking photos and videos, patrolling, surveillance. With their help, you can broadcast cellular communications and the Internet in hard-to-reach regions or work as an interactive target complex for training air defense calculations.
Solar-powered devices fly longer than usual, are cheaper and more environmentally friendly. The next goal of the inventors is to develop a whole line of UAVs covering the needs of agriculture and industry in Kazakhstan, among which it is planned to develop an autonomous device that can work around the clock. This will be another step towards the innovative growth of our country.
