The Tethered Uni-Rotor Network: Eternal Flight UAV

Re:The Tethered Uni-Rotor Network: Eternal Flight UAV by mikepurvis on Tuesday February 19, 2019 @11:32AM (#19200141)

The use-cases discussed in TFA all seem pretty low-power, mostly recon-type stuff. That said, it'd be interesting to contemplate what the right proportions would be to actually run a hungrier payload.

At a certain point, "perpetual" also starts to run into problems of mechanical failure. Then again, if these things are cheap enough and/or able to limp home in the case of a snapped cable or failed prop motor, maybe it still works out.

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Re:The Tethered Uni-Rotor Network: Eternal Flight UAV by crowbahr on Tuesday February 19, 2019 @11:51AM (#19200346)

Seems like the video talked about wanting to make it into an internet communication network, which just doesn't seam feasible to me.

Then again, I'm just a programmer. I recognize I have no grasp of the power requirements for that kind of project.

The inexpensive nature of them seems a major draw. I wonder if they can detach cables and have the wings fly home on their own while having the center parachute down?

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Re:The Tethered Uni-Rotor Network: Eternal Flight UAV by usrusr on Tuesday February 19, 2019 @05:42PM (#19203640)

Limping home would be the easy part. It would be really impressive if the system had the ability to attach the tether of a replacement "blade" in flight, extending/replenishing the formation on the go.

But we are hardly able to keep conventional solar glider UAVs in the air, I suspect that adding the drag of a tether moves the goalposts far out of reach.

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