Power Over Fiber “is a technology in which a fiber-optic cable carries optical power, which is used as an energy source rather than, or as well as, carrying data”.
Now I’d recommend looking up how much power can be transported by the very few implementations out there, and how much they cost.
Anything coming close to being able to power a drone would need way thicker fibers, increasing the drone weight. Any too big bend would set the fiber on fire. And it costs so much that building a slightly bigger drone with more batteries is cheaper.
Commercial systems generally deliver about a watt at 10-20 meters, which of course drops with distance and depends on fiber quality. It also requires a separate fiber(pair) from the data fiber.
I have to imagine the article is just wrong about this part, but maybe there’s something I’m missing.
Power Over Fiber “is a technology in which a fiber-optic cable carries optical power, which is used as an energy source rather than, or as well as, carrying data”.
Now I’d recommend looking up how much power can be transported by the very few implementations out there, and how much they cost.
Anything coming close to being able to power a drone would need way thicker fibers, increasing the drone weight. Any too big bend would set the fiber on fire. And it costs so much that building a slightly bigger drone with more batteries is cheaper.
To save people the click:
Commercial systems generally deliver about a watt at 10-20 meters, which of course drops with distance and depends on fiber quality. It also requires a separate fiber(pair) from the data fiber.
A small DJI burns about 100 watts
Has it actually been deployed for aerial drones, or just theoretically?
See reference [1] if the article: https://optics.org/news/4/5/1
It seems to work at least for small surveillance drones.
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