31–40 of 49 posts
Paper link, includes videos of the prototypes: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07609-4
https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-3909633/v1_cov...
"Sunlight-powered hovering of an ultra-light micro aerial vehicle" (PDF)
Article says 4g title says 9mg
> However, the design can be miniaturized, and the researchers built a version that weighs only 9 milligrams. Ars A/B tests their titles so I don't know if the submitter editorialized or if they saw a different title than the rest of us, but the text of the article does include building a 9 mg version.
At those length scales the interesting forces at play are not fluid mechanics, but capillary forces and surface tension. It also trivially easy to make - just rip a piece of gold foil weighing 9mg
>9mg Yeah, just make stuff up...
On the other, any non trivial mechanical system at those lengths scales is dominated by surface forces and they hardly care to discuss "easy" problems like voltage converters.
Every time I see one of these drone tech demonstrations, I can't help but wonder how they will be adapted for warfare. This one... I'm seeing flying solar powered landmines (skymines?) that can flutter around an active combat zone aimlessly for hours until it detects a personnel target and bops them near the temple with a small round. I wonder if there are any actual benefits over just putting a solar panel on a regu…
> and bops them near the temple with a small round. The smallest commercially available centerfire cartridge was the 2.7mm Kolibri round, which was too underpowered to inflict significant damage to a person other than maybe if you hit them right in the eyeball. That round weighed 5.3 grams while the OP article talks about a drone weighing 9 milli grams. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2mm_Kolibri This drone just doesn'…
Every time I see one of these drone tech demonstrations, I can't help but wonder how they will be adapted for warfare. This one... I'm seeing flying solar powered landmines (skymines?) that can flutter around an active combat zone aimlessly for hours until it detects a personnel target and bops them near the temple with a small round. I wonder if there are any actual benefits over just putting a solar panel on a regu…
How do you every do 15k rpm on 1 milliwatt? This sounds very odd to me, because unless You're in vacuum this is going to be a lot of air resistance..
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> and bops them near the temple with a small round. The smallest commercially available centerfire cartridge was the 2.7mm Kolibri round, which was too underpowered to inflict significant damage to a person other than maybe if you hit them right in the eyeball. That round weighed 5.3 grams while the OP article talks about a drone weighing 9 milli grams. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2mm_Kolibri This drone just doesn'…
I suspect a 5.3 gram shaped charge detonated right near the head will do much more damage.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> and bops them near the temple with a small round. The smallest commercially available centerfire cartridge was the 2.7mm Kolibri round, which was too underpowered to inflict significant damage to a person other than maybe if you hit them right in the eyeball. That round weighed 5.3 grams while the OP article talks about a drone weighing 9 milli grams. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2mm_Kolibri This drone just doesn'…
I suspect a 5.3 gram shaped charge detonated right near the head will do much more damage.
There’s already drones loaded with Hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane, such as the AeroVironment Switchblade.
But I suppose something that can fly all day… loitering … is even more terrifying if applied
Every time I see one of these drone tech demonstrations, I can't help but wonder how they will be adapted for warfare. This one... I'm seeing flying solar powered landmines (skymines?) that can flutter around an active combat zone aimlessly for hours until it detects a personnel target and bops them near the temple with a small round. I wonder if there are any actual benefits over just putting a solar panel on a regu…
I wonder how feasible would be adding an actuator that slightly tilts the propeller axis, driven according to the direction from which the drone is receiving sunlight, so that the drone would turn always to the sun, remaining airborne as long as it can follow its light.
Given how fast the biggest free source of light moves relative to the ground, I don't think it would help outdoor operational times that much unless it can travel at speeds closer to Mach 1.
... Well, closer to the equator anyway, but I suppose it could stay aloft longer near the poles.