UAV

Hydrogen fuel storage solution for UAVs

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) embarked on a year-long collaboration with Honeywell Aerospace in 2023 to prototype and support the commercialization of a novel cartridge-based hydrogen fuel storage solution for UAVs. The project, Fuel Additives for Solid Hydrogen (FLASH) Carriers in Electric Aviation, is a new hydrogen carrier technology developed at NREL within the HyMARC Energy Materials Network and is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office through DOE’s Technology Commercialization Fund.

FLASH seeks to deliver an alternative approach, in which efficient and longlasting hydrogen storage is coupled to a fuel cell that continuously converts hydrogen to electricity to power electric UAV flight. That system would enable long-range flights, but without the carbon emissions of combustion engines. It would also enable sensitive drone applications like atmospheric monitoring, where exhaust gases and rumbling engines would reduce performance. www.nrel.gov

Sentient vidar sensors integrated on Edge Autonomy UAV

Sentient Vision Systems has successfully completed live demonstrations of its AI-enabled ViDAR (Visual Detection and Ranging) payload deployed on Edge Autonomy’s VXE30 UAS. The VXE30 vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) solution is the latest and most advanced version of the “Stalker” series of small uncrewed aerial systems (sUAS) from Edge Autonomy. When coupled with Sentient’s ViDAR, the VXE30 provides a passive, wide area search capability, enabling it to serve a myriad of maritime operations. https://edgeautonomy.io