Phoenix, the nation’s first solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), successfully made its first test flight in Taipei yesterday, showing off the results of three years of research and development by a team from the Department of Aerospace Engineering of Tamkang University.
The aircraft, which weighs about 9.3kg, has solar arrays (a group of solar panels) attached to its wings that are 3.7m long and cover 65 percent of the wing surface. The solar panels, which operate at 18 percent efficiency, cannot produce sufficient energy to power the drone, so two lithium polymer batteries provide the remaining energy needed to keep the aircraft aloft.
Phoenix has not yet been able to store solar energy in fuel cells for use at night.
Photo: Tsai Pai-ling, Taipei Times, courtesy of Tamkang University’s Department of Aerospace Engineering
“The most difficult part of the project is to design and build a system that utilizes as well as maximizes energy,” said Ma Te-ming (馬德明), an associate professor at the department. “We have developed our own software to achieve the best efficiency possible.”
Ma also said Phoenix could harvest all its power from the sun if solar panels that operate at 30 percent efficiency are used. However, the limited funding provided by the university and the National Science Council means that the researchers need to make the most with what funding they have.
“A 3x7cm panel that is 30 percent efficient costs NT$10,000. We can’t afford it. The total amount we spent on solar panels is around NT$30,000,” he said. “The total cost of the drone is around NT$100,000.”
Composed of about 30 students from two aerial engineering laboratories amd led by three academics, including Ma, the university’s team made a couple of test models before Phoenix.
“My job is to develop the solar energy system. It took forever to set up the system. After it was set up, we spent another year running tests,” 25-year-old team member Liang Chun-kang (梁淳剛) said.
Under the midday sun at the His Sheng Remote Control Aircraft Park in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Sinjhuang (新莊) yesterday, the UAV took off on an airstrip as the research team piloted it by remote control. It flew at an average speed of 34km per hour, circled in the sky a few times and made a slightly rough landing that caused minor damage to one of its tires.
The range of the remote control is one to two kilometers, Ma said, adding the aircraft’s slow velocity renders it vulnerable to crosswinds.
The test flight is expected to provide valuable data relating to battery voltage, electric current, flight height, aircraft motions for further development.
The ultimate goal, Ma said, is to make an entirely solar-powered aircraft, with solar panels feeding on batteries that can keep the craft aloft at night or in the rain.
One of the main reasons for developing solar-powered UAVs is to extend aircraft flight times because they can use the sun as an unlimited source of energy, Ma said.
“Because UAVs don’t need human pilots, we want to keep them up in the air as long as possible to carry out operations considered too dangerous for manned aircraft,” he added.
UAVs have a wide range of uses and mission capabilities beyond military purposes. For example, they can be used for search-and-rescue operations, monitoring drug trafficking and detecting pollution, Ma said.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
The first tropical storm of the year in the western North Pacific, Wutip (蝴蝶), has formed over the South China Sea and is expected to move toward Hainan Island off southern China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. The agency said a tropical depression over waters near the Paracel and Zhongsha islands strengthened into a tropical storm this morning. The storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 64.8kph, with peak gusts reaching 90kph, it said. Winds at Beaufort scale level 7 — ranging from 50kph to 61.5kph — extended up to 80km from the center, it added. Forecaster Kuan Hsin-ping
RSS