Hydrogen fuel cell drone tech: beyond Doosan, the company making it happen

Hydrogen fuel cell drone tech: beyond Doosan, the company making it happen

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If the identify Doosan sounds acquainted, that’s as a result of the corporate popped up on Drone Woman’s radar after being named one of many honorees of the CES 2022 Innovation Awards. And it seems, the corporate constructing hydrogen gasoline cell drone tech has quite a bit up its sleeve past a flowery title from the Shopper Electronics Present.

The corporate is creating protected use of hydrogen gasoline cell know-how for drones. And that’s essential for a number of causes, together with:

  • It expands the variety of drones with zero carbon emissions, which is sweet from an environmental standpoint.
  • Hydrogen gasoline cells could possibly be notably related in increasing past visible line of sight (BVLOS) drone operations.
  • Hydrogen-power means drones sometimes have decrease noise, in addition to no vibration throughout energy era.

And with that, right here’s what you have to find out about Doosan, the corporate constructing hydrogen gasoline tech for drones, and why its tech is so essential:

Doosan hydrogen fuel cell drone UAV

The facility of hydrogen gasoline cell drone tech

Hydrogen gasoline cell drone tech supplies a better power density over conventional lithium batteries, which is mostly what you’ll discover in drones together with DJI’s drones (in addition to different tech merchandise like your iPhone). Whereas battery-powered methods don’t produce carbon emissions both, they’re restricted in vary and capability.

Different drone corporations use fossil gasoline propulsion methods, however these entail carbon emissions and excessive environmental noise. In distinction, hydrogen may be produced utilizing 100% renewable power. And, when the gasoline cell generates electrical energy, it emits solely water vapor.

And right here’s even one other profit: it takes roughly 10 minutes or much less to cost a gasoline cell, whereas it takes greater than 60 to 90 minutes to completely cost a battery.&

Because of the mixture of extra energy and its zero-emissions profile, many specialists consider that gasoline cell know-how might sustainably increase BVLOS drone operations for each business and public flight operations.

In a single research (full transparency, it was achieved by Doosan itself), hydrogen gasoline cells on drones have been discovered to utperform conventional batteries with an power density as much as 4 occasions the present commonplace.

A historical past of Doosan

Doosan Mobility Innovation (DMI) is a 100% invested firm by Doosan Company, which is an enormous, international firm with $18.5 billion in income.

DMI has been manufacturing gasoline cell know-how since 2014, however didn’t initially begin with drones, solely lately designing miniaturized gasoline cell-powered techniques particularly for protected use in drones.

In 2019, Doosan launched drone merchandise within the U.S., China and Korea. Since then, it’s collected hours of flight time throughout hydrogen drones utilized in numerous industrial fields together with utility inspection, supply, emergency monitoring, and public security.

Regardless of being a relative newcomer to drones, Doosan Mobility Innovation can — and all the time will — maintain the title of world’s first commercialized hydrogen gasoline cell system for drones. Its drone tech presents as much as 4 occasions longer flight time than commonplace battery operated drones.

Doosan this yr obtained acknowledged in a extra formal sense as a CES 2022 Innovation Awards recipient. The CES 2022 Innovation Awards acknowledge merchandise that entered the marketplace for the primary time after April 1, 2021. And actually, Doosan was acknowledged twice within the CES 2022 Innovation Awards.

Amongst Doosan’s lineup that includes hydrogen gasoline cell drone tech

DJ25: A gasoline cell-powered VTOL drone by Doosan Mobility Innovation and JOUAV

The corporate first received its CES recognition for its DJ25 hydrogen gasoline cell VTOL(Vertical Take Off and Touchdown) business drone answer, designed by Doosan in partnership with JOUAV. That drone accommodates superior PEMFC(Proton-Trade Membrane Gasoline Cell) know-how and a VTOL air body.

The drone purports to have flight time of as much as 5 and half hours, and it may possibly cowl as much as 500km in a single flight, making it well-suited for long-distance inspections, large-scale website surveying and mapping.

Doosan Mobility Innovation’s second award got here by way of its photo voltaic inspection answer created for hydrogen gasoline cell drones. That each one-in-one answer for renewable power infrastructure inspections includes hydrogen PEMFC(Proton-exchange Membrane Gasoline Cells) know-how.

With this extra eco-friendly product, a hydrogen gasoline cell drone can fly for greater than two hours with an automated mission flight whereas taking detailed photographs of lots of of hundreds of photo voltaic panels (that’s a 2MW photo voltaic farm). From there, knowledge is collected and despatched to an AI-based SW by means of Doosan’s LTE cloud server, enabling defects to be mechanically detected via machine studying, made into studies and despatched to clients.

Partnerships with& Iris Automation& and& Drone America

A number of the largest American drone companies are turning to Doosan for its hydrogen gasoline cell know-how. As a part of the 2022 CES convention, Iris Automation and& Drone America signed agreements to pursue Doosan’s hydrogen gasoline cell know-how for scaling its lengthy vary, autonomous past line of sight drone operations.

The three corporations will pair their mixed flight expertise, applied sciences and experience in an effort to form the way forward for BVLOS business operations.

“Attending to larger density, zero-emissions gasoline is a vital breakthrough for long-range drone operation,” stated Lori DeMatteis, vice chairman of gross sales and advertising at Iris Automation. The corporate is constructing a collision avoidance software program referred to as Casia, which permits drones to see and react to the aviation setting across the plane. That permits actual time airspace consciousness onboard the drone, even when it’s flying past the operator’s line of sight.

In the meantime, Drone America is an organization that designs and manufactures drones, whereas additionally offering business flight providers to first responders, crucial supply, and infrastructure surveying and inspections. The corporate is presently constructing a fleet of licensed above 55lb. plane. That fleet will use Iris’s Casia for real-time airspace consciousness and sure, Doosan’s gasoline cell techniques.

“Shaping the way forward for business BVLOS shouldn't be all the time about one individual, however concerning the group that makes every thing occur,” Mike Richards, Drone America President and CEO. “From design, engineering, and manufacturing to flight providers, certification and coaching, everybody right here represents the easiest at what they do.”

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