The Verge reported Tuesday that British hydrogen fuel cell technology company Intelligent Energy has been successfully testing a miniaturized version of a hydrogen fuel cell as part of a drone system with the intent to increase flight times. Through such hydrogen fuel cell technology, drones could start flying for up to and over two hours, which would be a six-fold increase over the current industry-standard 20-minute flight time for many drones.
While replaceable batteries exist, stopping drone flight every 20 minutes during a production can be a hassle, not to mention time-consuming and, therefore, expensive. And once you're out of batteries, recharging can take the better part of an hour or more. Fuel-cell-powered drones could take all that hassle away, allowing flight times longer than a camera battery might even last, quick several-minute fuel-ups, and extended flight time to reduce unnecessary land and re-launch procedures just to save a few extra minutes of battery power between takes. Furthermore, this could open the doors to record-setting single take times for drone videography. Several people out there are already imagining an hour-long, continuous take drone shot... Thankfully, they can speak to someone at CES 2016, where Intelligent Energy says it will unveil and display the new technology. Whether or not there will be a demonstration is unclear.
While hydrogen fuel cells would extend the flight time of drones, it's important to note they likely wouldn't power them directly. Instead, a battery would still directly supply power to the drone while the hydrogen fuel cell would recharge the battery continuously. Once the fuel cell and battery are both depleted, you could simply refill the fuel cell and send the unit off again, with the cell recharging the battery in-flight. This is what provides the extra in-air shooting time. Intelligent Energy did also, however, test solely fuel-cell-powered drones.
The miniaturization of this technology is undoubtedly necessary to keep weight at a minimum, but at the same time, this added power could benefit larger rigs that were previously limited by the amount of power they could carry (and subsequently provide for flight and camera operation).
At a time when the FAA is cracking down on recreational and commercial drone usage, this technology also brings up more issues with respect to people's feeling of responsibility with a drone that could fly over one hour away from them. It's currently not legal to fly a drone that far away (not to mention difficult to near-impossible given the limitations of most drones' radios), since drones have to stay within site under current rules, but that's not to say it won't be done by some irresponsible operators.
What would you do with a drone that could fly for over two hours?
[Via TheVerge]
"What would you do with a drone that could fly for over two hours?"
Good question. Is there such a market even? Because even for big production movies, they have to cut the scenes, make transitions etc... which can be used to swap batteries or drones.
Mapping, inspections, search and rescue, etc.
Diiiiid not think of those applications. Good point!
I would even say that large productions would LOVE the extra time. 20 minutes of battery is nothing for those... Shoot two five-minute takes and you have to think about replacing your battery after the third...can't shoot a fourth reliably. If you had two hours, you could just keep hovering while everything goes "back to ONE!" and everyone can continue... You could shoot twenty takes without even blinking... Huge time-saver...
current 20mins fly time is a joke and without alternatives. 2hr is damn welcomed. It's nice to be able to fly extended period of time even just to enjoy the scenary from the top!
"Simply refill the Hydrogen fuel cell". Not simple yet.
Awesome, I spent almost as much money on batteries and battery accessories as I did on drones!!