This is an incredible project. Great work. I am an RC enthusiast looking to incorporate Solar cells into a model to allow for long duration and range missions. This is inspiration
You "loved the landing?"!! It was horrible; I am not sure if the propeller is damaged from the impact. On a more positive note, among so many other things that have come to my mind, I wonder how long it will take for this babe to reach the stratosphere with its max-incline capacity; I mean if we can do that, the higher its altitude, the easier it is on the horizontal gain, therefore you can technically send it anywhere on earth, all around the globe even, just go like that until you decide when and where to send it down to hit or land on whatever you like it to.. If you make it big enough, you can put people and or cargo and send it around the globe without spending much. It will be slow, but once you reach a certain altitude, you can have boosters that prop-up its speed and you can be over the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean in no-time; and it is also much safer than the regular plane, cause it is like a glider essentially, if the engine(s) fail, it can just glide down and land safely on land or water. The applications are endless..
Update: The full technical details (design of the autonomous launch and landing algorithms, design of the autonomous thermal updraft tracking, sensor suite) are now available in a Journal of Field Robotics publication at onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/rob.21765/full. You can access the submission version of that paper on our website at www.atlantiksolar.ethz.ch/wp-content/downloads/publications/JFR_26hFlight_paper_2ndRev.pdf.
Really cool project. how many watts does the motor use to sustain flight? I am trying to get a glider to fly through through the night but haven't achieved that yet. Also what is the program that detects thermals? Thanks
Hi Tim, details on the motor and power consumption can be found in www.atlantiksolar.ethz.ch/wp-content/downloads/publications/AeroConf_2016_vFinal.pdf . The program to detect thermal updrafts is our own custom code which about which there will be a publication soon, but it is based on the work presented for ardupilot here: diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/ardusoar-cross-country-x-plane-simulation
@Flo: Yes, Custom indeed, please also see the discussion on this at diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/ackling-the-european-refugee-crisis-with-solar-powered-uavs-a . Parts of the firmware will become public, i.e. we plan to push the thermal updraft tracker once it is complete.
This is a very good question. In fact, it is one of the most challenging research questions regarding solar-powered aircraft that is out there! Have you seen what happens when winds&thunderstorm clouds hit in this video ruclips.net/video/8m4_NpTQn0E/видео.html ? This is about the maximum wind such aircraft can tolerate. But it does already allow operation in otherwise quite hostile environments. See the most recent deployment of AtlantikSolar to the Arctic: ruclips.net/video/wyS6W1t_ryQ/видео.html . For even tougher conditions than this there is no other alternative than avoiding them by proper flight preparation and planning. If you are interested in the topic, have a look at this article that we recently published: arxiv.org/abs/1711.10328 .
AtlantikSolar wow,didnt expect that it could still fly,i thougt it will just tumble arround,i didnt watch all the video tho.also do you have any aero improvement on it like big company done on thier planes? vortex generator, improved wing tip etc?
No vortex generators, because such a solar-powered plane needs to operate as efficiently as possible, and therefore really prefers laminar airflow over turbulent airflow over its wings. Also, we never had a problem with stalling, so vortex generators are not needed. Wing tips: If you have a very high aspect ratio (ratio between wing span to wing chord) of 18.5 as AtlantikSolar does, then you don't necessarily need wing tips anymore. The reason is that your induced drag is already so low that the aerodynamic benefit of a wing tip may be eaten up by their increased weight. Obviously, on civil jetliners with their aspect ratios of ~8 this is a whole different story. Nice reference for those who are interested: www.dg-flugzeugbau.de/en/library/performance-increase-possibilities
No, no obstacle avoidance integrated yet. This is subject of ongoing research however, so similar planes will have that capability soon (as some DJI multicopters do already).
Theory says that from an energy-perspective it could, yes. See Figure 17 in our publication at www.atlantiksolar.ethz.ch/wp-content/downloads/publications/JFR_81hFlight_paper_final.pdf if you want to know more details.
Hi, Amazing project, seriously impressive flight times. Does the craft start with a fully charged battery or do you take off empty? And what sort of battery capacity do you have. Again, amazing project, congrats! I wish you all the best
Hi Ross, I'd say we require >40% State-of-charge for a takeoff. On extremely sunny days, you might require a bit less (because the panels can supply up to 270W and the motor requires anything between 150-400W during launch). For the battery capacity question, please check our literature at www.atlantiksolar.ethz.ch/wp-content/downloads/publications/AeroConf_2016_vFinal.pdf .
I think yes, because the flight computer (and other sensors you might want to include) has a minimal weight and power supply, to perform the needed calculations. The bigger the plane, the more excess power it has for these things. So there is a minimal plane size, which has enough excess power.
Really impresive work, congrats! Can you provide what solar cells are you using, for my project I have researched and havent been able to find flexible light weight cells. Any info is greatly appreciated!
Thanks! It is SunPower E60 cells with ~23.8% module level efficiency, also see www.atlantiksolar.ethz.ch/wp-content/downloads/publications/AeroConf_2016_vFinal.pdf
hello i am korean high school student i want make solar plane but i don't know so i buy a glider and a solar collector where buy a solar collector? and you use battery?
Hi, you will most probably have to buy individual solar cells and them install them on your plane! A good choice are semi-flexible solar cells (mostly achieved through a copper layer on the solar cell's back-side). The SunPower cells that we use have that. You need to look for a local dealer of these cells in your country, although you should also get them through shops like alibaba oir this one : www.aliexpress.com/item/Sunpower-Maxeon-Solar-Cell-21-8-Efficiency-3-34W-Semi-flexible-125x125mm-Mono-1pcs-Solar-Cell/1541942602.html .
This is a flight at a local model airfield within visual line-of-sight, i.e. the Pilot can always switch to manual flight mode to perform an avoid maneuver. The altitude of flight was
I am so proud of people like this and the world we live in.
Great job guys and a wonderful contribution to the world we live in.
Way
to late
This is an incredible project. Great work. I am an RC enthusiast looking to incorporate Solar cells into a model to allow for long duration and range missions. This is inspiration
The thermaling algorithm is very nice. Loved the landing? Very nice work indeed.
You "loved the landing?"!! It was horrible; I am not sure if the propeller is damaged from the impact.
On a more positive note, among so many other things that have come to my mind, I wonder how long it will take for this babe to reach the stratosphere with its max-incline capacity; I mean if we can do that, the higher its altitude, the easier it is on the horizontal gain, therefore you can technically send it anywhere on earth, all around the globe even, just go like that until you decide when and where to send it down to hit or land on whatever you like it to..
If you make it big enough, you can put people and or cargo and send it around the globe without spending much. It will be slow, but once you reach a certain altitude, you can have boosters that prop-up its speed and you can be over the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean in no-time; and it is also much safer than the regular plane, cause it is like a glider essentially, if the engine(s) fail, it can just glide down and land safely on land or water.
The applications are endless..
Very very nice! So cool that people are working on this.
Update: The full technical details (design of the autonomous launch and landing algorithms, design of the autonomous thermal updraft tracking, sensor suite) are now available in a Journal of Field Robotics publication at onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/rob.21765/full. You can access the submission version of that paper on our website at www.atlantiksolar.ethz.ch/wp-content/downloads/publications/JFR_26hFlight_paper_2ndRev.pdf.
Beautiful work. Hope you guys continue the research.
So china can control cost of batteries?
Beautiful
Wow,
Very well done guys!
Outstanding !!!!
Solar power and auto-thermaling, nice! And what a beautiful auto-landing. You wouldn't have jobs available?
What's your future plan? Are you going to go across Atlantik Ocean?
Awesome!
wow this wonderful
Could someone show me the lift and drag coefficient and the angle of attack of atlantik solar during cruising? pls
Really cool project. how many watts does the motor use to sustain flight? I am trying to get a glider to fly through through the night but haven't achieved that yet. Also what is the program that detects thermals?
Thanks
Hi Tim, details on the motor and power consumption can be found in www.atlantiksolar.ethz.ch/wp-content/downloads/publications/AeroConf_2016_vFinal.pdf . The program to detect thermal updrafts is our own custom code which about which there will be a publication soon, but it is based on the work presented for ardupilot here: diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/ardusoar-cross-country-x-plane-simulation
Wonderful! What firmware is on the pixhawk? I guess custom. Will it be available to the public at some point? I want to build my own solar project
@Flo: Yes, Custom indeed, please also see the discussion on this at diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/ackling-the-european-refugee-crisis-with-solar-powered-uavs-a . Parts of the firmware will become public, i.e. we plan to push the thermal updraft tracker once it is complete.
i love how the idea to use this for SAR operations. but how will it cope with bad weather conditions?
This is a very good question. In fact, it is one of the most challenging research questions regarding solar-powered aircraft that is out there!
Have you seen what happens when winds&thunderstorm clouds hit in this video ruclips.net/video/8m4_NpTQn0E/видео.html ? This is about the maximum wind such aircraft can tolerate. But it does already allow operation in otherwise quite hostile environments. See the most recent deployment of AtlantikSolar to the Arctic: ruclips.net/video/wyS6W1t_ryQ/видео.html . For even tougher conditions than this there is no other alternative than avoiding them by proper flight preparation and planning. If you are interested in the topic, have a look at this article that we recently published: arxiv.org/abs/1711.10328 .
AtlantikSolar wow,didnt expect that it could still fly,i thougt it will just tumble arround,i didnt watch all the video tho.also do you have any aero improvement on it like big company done on thier planes? vortex generator, improved wing tip etc?
No vortex generators, because such a solar-powered plane needs to operate as efficiently as possible, and therefore really prefers laminar airflow over turbulent airflow over its wings. Also, we never had a problem with stalling, so vortex generators are not needed.
Wing tips: If you have a very high aspect ratio (ratio between wing span to wing chord) of 18.5 as AtlantikSolar does, then you don't necessarily need wing tips anymore. The reason is that your induced drag is already so low that the aerodynamic benefit of a wing tip may be eaten up by their increased weight. Obviously, on civil jetliners with their aspect ratios of ~8 this is a whole different story. Nice reference for those who are interested: www.dg-flugzeugbau.de/en/library/performance-increase-possibilities
what would happen if it was landing and a person was near the site would it try and avoid them or perform a go around?
No, no obstacle avoidance integrated yet. This is subject of ongoing research however, so similar planes will have that capability soon (as some DJI multicopters do already).
very cool guys.
what are your intentions going forward?
Hi Guide, sorry for the late reply. They are/were this: ruclips.net/video/wyS6W1t_ryQ/видео.html :)
so if this was deployed near the equator where there's more sun, could this fly indefinitely?
Theory says that from an energy-perspective it could, yes. See Figure 17 in our publication at www.atlantiksolar.ethz.ch/wp-content/downloads/publications/JFR_81hFlight_paper_final.pdf if you want to know more details.
Hi,
Amazing project, seriously impressive flight times. Does the craft start with a fully charged battery or do you take off empty? And what sort of battery capacity do you have.
Again, amazing project, congrats! I wish you all the best
Hi Ross, I'd say we require >40% State-of-charge for a takeoff. On extremely sunny days, you might require a bit less (because the panels can supply up to 270W and the motor requires anything between 150-400W during launch). For the battery capacity question, please check our literature at www.atlantiksolar.ethz.ch/wp-content/downloads/publications/AeroConf_2016_vFinal.pdf .
Thanks to slojo giving Afghanistan's underground trillion dollars in
rare minerals [lithium] to china, china will build 100% of batteries. Ask china?
Why is this channel dead?
Impressive. It there a minimum wingspan that the plane requires to be sufficiently powered by solar energy and stay airborne for 24 hours or so?
I think yes, because the flight computer (and other sensors you might want to include) has a minimal weight and power supply, to perform the needed calculations. The bigger the plane, the more excess power it has for these things. So there is a minimal plane size, which has enough excess power.
Is this company still around
Really impresive work, congrats! Can you provide what solar cells are you using, for my project I have researched and havent been able to find flexible light weight cells. Any info is greatly appreciated!
Thanks! It is SunPower E60 cells with ~23.8% module level efficiency, also see www.atlantiksolar.ethz.ch/wp-content/downloads/publications/AeroConf_2016_vFinal.pdf
hello i am korean high school student i want make solar plane but i don't know so i buy a glider and a solar collector where buy a solar collector?
and you use battery?
Hi, you will most probably have to buy individual solar cells and them install them on your plane! A good choice are semi-flexible solar cells (mostly achieved through a copper layer on the solar cell's back-side). The SunPower cells that we use have that. You need to look for a local dealer of these cells in your country, although you should also get them through shops like alibaba oir this one : www.aliexpress.com/item/Sunpower-Maxeon-Solar-Cell-21-8-Efficiency-3-34W-Semi-flexible-125x125mm-Mono-1pcs-Solar-Cell/1541942602.html .
Is it for sell?
is there any aileron on this plane?
Sure, see e.g. 2:55 in the video.
Wow
666 what's the name of BGM
Airspace? In that altitude manned airplanes and choppers are flying arround....
This is a flight at a local model airfield within visual line-of-sight, i.e. the Pilot can always switch to manual flight mode to perform an avoid maneuver. The altitude of flight was
What happened to this channel? 😐
Need