A Chinese earthquake rescue team deployed drones to light up the night and aid search and rescue operations after the devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Myanmar.

[u/Red_Lotus_Alchemist]

[u/EmusOnly]

Looks like that wire is connected to a generator, that’s actually pretty neat

[u/NJ_Legion_Iced_Tea → u/EmusOnly]

I can't wait for when wireless charging is able to extend multiple/hundreds of feet.

Wired drones are already capable of so much, and powering them wirelessly is going to be a civilizational game changer.

Edit: I'm talking high concept sci fi. The likes of which is probably outside of our reach but what we can strive towards. On par with Star Trek Transporters and Communicators from the 60s.

[u/nico282 → u/NJ_Legion_Iced_Tea]

Spoiler alert, it won't. Physics laws don't change.

[u/NJ_Legion_Iced_Tea → u/nico282]

You're not entirely wrong, and it's probably only a good idea in sci fi. But there's nothing wrong in aspiring to create tech near that hypothetical potential.

Even 20 years ago you'd have been called mad for charging a cell phone wirelessly.

[u/Jealous_Priority_228 → u/NJ_Legion_Iced_Tea]

It currently exists, but radiating that much power would undoubtedly be harmful to any humans, or pets, caught in the area. There's a room at a university where you can hold a light bulb, and it'll light up anywhere you hold it.

It's probably smarter to focus on concentrating batteries even more. Electricity is plentiful and renewable.

[u/Somepotato → u/Jealous_Priority_228]

Not necessarily. Directed radiation and lasers are ways to distribute power over a distance without risking people.

[u/sikyon → u/Somepotato]

its conceptually straightforward to supply power via a scanning laser, in practice anything that steps betwen the beam line will get burned. There are ways around it but the safety risks are so high it's not practical

[u/Jostain → u/Somepotato]

I hope you realise that this is worse than just attaching a wire. Suddenly you have a thing that needs to have direct line of sight to the drone at all times and uses 100 times more power. Solutions don't just need to be cool, they need to be better than the already existing solution.

[u/TapdancingHotcake → u/Somepotato]

That sounds terribly like a wire with extra steps

[u/BishoxX → u/Somepotato]

Sure , but we are miles off any technology of that nature.

Its like 0.0000001% of magnetic charging

[u/Somepotato → u/[deleted]]

Um...are people holding that power station on the ground? And fyi, radiation isn't inherently harmful...the light, wifi, and heat coming off your phone are all forms of radiation.

Edit: LMAO HE BLOCKED ME "Those aren't forms of electrical radiation" alright buddy what a sore loser.

I was hoping to engage in hypotheticals - not provide this as a 'guaranteed' solution. I think it could work given a proper setup (such as a mesh of drones)

[u/Jealous_Priority_228 → u/Somepotato]

Shouldn't have tried to have fun with a troll. Those aren't forms of electrical radiation, and you're incorrect.

[u/flukus → u/NJ_Legion_Iced_Tea]

Even 20 years ago you'd have been called mad for charging a cell phone wirelessly.

Not really, it's something kids have been doing in science classes for many decades.

[u/Jostain → u/NJ_Legion_Iced_Tea]

It's not wireless though. You have to put it down on a plate and keep it perfectly aligned while it's charging. If anything it's more wired than regular charging. There is a reason that a lot of phone manufacturers stopped pushing that feature because they did the math and realised it was a technological dead end.

[u/nico282 → u/NJ_Legion_Iced_Tea]

Sorry to ruin it for you, but the QI wireless standard is from 17 years ago (2008), and non standard solutions existed way before that.

My toothbrush was wireless charging in the 80s.

To become mainstream on phones it lacked only intelligence (phone now communicates with the charger) and standardization. It was never a physics issue.

[u/VladamirK → u/NJ_Legion_Iced_Tea]

Nikola Tesla was experimenting with wireless energy transfers in the 1900s.