LaserMotive’s unnamed quadrocopter hovers for 12 solid hours using lasers alone

Protip: $900,000 goes a long way, particularly when you’re dumping practically all of it into a single investment ( Hello Kitty lap warmers notwithstanding). LaserMotive, the company lauded for bringing home nearly a million bucks in the 2009 NASA-sponsored Space Elevator Games, has just broken an endurance record for laser-powered hovering with its unnamed Pelican. This here quadrocopter is designed to get energized by converting beams into power via a set of photovoltaic panels on its underside, and in a recent test, lasers were able to keep it afloat for over 12 hours. It never hovered much higher than 30 feet, and it barely moved from left to right while in the air, but we’re guessing it was marginally more interesting than watching paint dry. All jesting aside, the milestone makes it a lot more feasible for the company to get this technology into UAVs used in the miliary — “for example, laser-powered copters could perform on-the-road reconnaissance missions when convoys travel through a combat zone.” And if you’re looking to take home something similar on a far smaller scale, there’s always the AR.Drone . Continue reading LaserMotive’s unnamed quadrocopter hovers for 12 solid hours using lasers alone LaserMotive’s unnamed quadrocopter hovers for 12 solid hours using lasers alone originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Nov 2010 22:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

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