Solar powered drones to support disaster relief

Philipp Oettershagen talks with BNamericas about the landmark flight made by the solar powered airplane, AtlantikSolar, over the Amazon rainforest and how it will help to make the technology commercially viable.

BNamericas: How did the idea of creating an airplane based on solar power come about?

Oettershagen: The design was motivated by applications such as large-scale disaster scenario support. These applications benefit greatly from aerial platforms that can stay airborne for multiple days without landing, while providing live images of disaster areas, such as obstructed roads, potential victim locations or telecommunications relay services to first-response search-and-rescue teams. As a result, AtlantikSolar is designed to stay airborne on solar power alone for up to five days.

BNamericas: How was the project designed?

Oettershagen: The overall development of the unmanned aerial vehicle took about three years. The investments were a combination of European Union research project funds for search-and-rescue applications and internal university funds. There are also a lot of private investors who are interested in pushing the technology behind this project.

BNamericas: Could you tell us how the solar system works on the airplane, including takeoff and landing?

Oettershagen: The solar modules on the aircraft generate energy during the day, including during takeoff and landing. This energy is used to propel the aircraft and all excess energy is stored in lithium-ion batteries in the wings. During the night, when no solar energy is available, all necessary energy is taken from the batteries. This is how the aircraft can fly through the night. In fact, we demonstrated the feasibility of this with a continuous solar powered flight of 4 days and 3 nights, a total of 81 hours, in June 2015. This flight set a new world record for continuous flight endurance for all aircrafts under a mass of 50kg.

BNamericas: Is it possible to make AtlantikSolar commercially viable? Do you have any plans for that?

Oettershagen: The technology behind AtlantikSolar is still in the research stage. As such, it's not commercially available, but we do expect it to be commercially viable within the next five years. In fact, we're expecting research projects that will make AtlantikSolar's younger "brother", the SenseSoar UAV, ready for commercial applications in large-scale solar powered agricultural inspection, meteorological sensing and more.

BNamericas: Why did you choose to fly above the Amazon rainforest?

Oettershagen: Given the continuous flight of 81 hours and 2,316km, the next step was to demonstrate flight in actual real life applications and adverse weather conditions. In that context, a relief mission for the boat disaster near Barcarena port in the Amazon rainforest, which affected 5000 cattle and resulted in the spillage of 750 tons of oil, has been a great opportunity to help our local partners with up-to-date aerial images and 3D maps to better coordinate their relief efforts.

In addition, the flights were a great opportunity for us to support research of the Brazilian rainforest by creating meteorological scientific data and to demonstrate the technological benefits of solar powered unmanned aerial vehicles.