This disclosure relates to solar-powered drones, more particularly to solar-powered drones that can perform vertical take-off and landing (VTOL).
Wildfires cause millions of dollars of damage to private and public property and have caused multiple deaths. Fighting wildfires also costs millions of dollars and has cost firefighters their lives and left others injured. Having the capability to detect and fight wildfires early, and deploy means to fight them as soon as possible, would limit the amount of damage they can cause.
The embodiments here involve a solar-powered drone tower having a tethered, solar-powered drone for monitoring regions for wildfire activity. The tower also has one or more non-tethered drones, referred to here as payload drones. The tower has at least one storage. The storage may comprise tank of bomblets configured to be carried by drones or other unmanned aerial vehicles that contain fire retardant or other fire suppression material, deployable from the payload drones. When the payload drones dock, they can be refilled and re-deployed to the fires. The storage may also comprise a stockpile of munitions-based fire-retardant rounds, discussed in more detail further.
The pole supports an array of solar panels such as 17 that may take many different shapes or forms. In one embodiment, the array may take the form of semicircular arrays along the pole. The pole also supports a solar-powered tethered drone 10 that connects to pole 12. The discussion here may refer to this as the lookout drone and may comprise a drone as set out in U.S. Pat. No. 10,239,613, “Solar Powered Tethered Drone.”
The poles may reside at the tops of mountains or hills in the region desiring fire lookout and elimination, like the watchtowers previously used by forest services. The lookout drone deploys on a regular schedule, or as needed, through a hinged roof of tower 14. The tether 12 extends and retracts using a mechanism such as a reel box 16. The lookout drone may extend at least 400 feet above the pole and uses solar panels on the tower to power itself and any onboard equipment. The lookout drone may include infrared (IR) and visual, long-distance cameras, and a global positioning system (GPS). An on-board computer, or a computer in the tower, analyzes the data and determines a location and flight vector to any detected fire.
The lookout drone monitors the area for smoke or heat signature that indicates a fire. An interior silo tank/reservoir 24 holds several bomblets full of fire-retardant materials. The silo tank 24 is loaded by a conveyor tube 20. The fire drones such as 30 transport the bomblets 26 to the fire and deposit the bomblets to control the fire. The drones receive the bomblets through a feed tube 28 into an internal bomblet tube 34, when the drones are docked on the charging deck 46.
The lookout drone may also serve as a beacon antenna to send messages to other towers in the region. The towers in a region may communicate about the status of the sorties, such as their number, and their success. They can contact the local forestry services, communicate with the fire drones to ensure their return to base, act as a security lookout for the tower itself, etc. The tethered drone may also have smaller drones that launch and return to the “mother” tethered drone, or to the landing dock.
The drones have two or more propellers such as 32 and 40 that swivel to allow the fire drones to take off and land vertically but fly horizontally. The fire drones hover over the fire and turn again vertically to dispense bomblets out of the tube onto the fire. A door 44 opens to allow the bomblets to disperse. Fins such as 42 support the drone in the landing position and may comprise three rigid fins and one that retracts when the drone is docked. The ends of the feet, such as 48 may have cathode and anode contacts that allow the battery 38 to charge from the dock. The battery 38 may also charge through the solar panels such as 36. Software in the main tower control system may control the drone flight, hover and docking process to ensure that the drone docks correctly to the charging deck. A more detailed view of the fire drone is shown in
The control system may also manage the flight of the drone and dispersion of the bomblets. If the drone(s) drop the payloads off target, the system adjusts their flight path and drop zone to correct the drop on the next path. This system allows for early detection of wildfires and then on-site firefighting within a very short period of time before personnel and equipment can reach the fires. They also provide the ability to fight fires in remote areas that are otherwise unreachable for extended periods of time with multiple drops, possibly even to get the fire under control, contained or even to put it out. In one embodiment, the fire towers would be constructed in a 386 square mile area, such as in four quadrants of the overall square mile area.
In another embodiment, the solar-powered fire tower is mounted to an existing fire tower, or a remote peak as shown in
The camera capability may be combined with the UAV launch pad as shown in
The tower 54 with is camera 52 may deploy as part of many other configurations.
Any of the above variations and combinations may be mixed and matched as needed for a particular environment and/or use.
In addition, the tower has a 4G/5G, or their successors, communications link 55. This allows the tower to communicate with external parties, such as the US Forest Service, etc., through a cellular network in accordance with whatever standard is currently being used. This link may be in addition to, or instead of, traditional radio communications typically used by the USFS. It allows interested parties, including nearby landowners, etc., to track spotted fires, and the progress of the fire and fire suppression activities. In addition or instead of being attached to the physical structure of the tower, the link may be mounted to a tethered drone. During emergency situations, such a fires, floods or other disruptions of service, the tethered drone or the tower could provide temporary services to parties within the eVTOL locations.
The towers may operate in an automated fashion with remote monitoring and communications through the cameras, or may be manned towers, with firefighters, forest rangers, etc., providing a human presence. The human(s) may monitor the cameras, operate the UAVs or pilot helicopters, prepare the drones, etc. In those instances, the containers may also include living quarters and facilities for humans. The humans will have access to the launchpad and can provide repair services as needed. As the UAVs, or drones, deploy into hazardous situations, there is a high possibility that they will need repair. The facilities may also include inventory of spare parts and tools.
These explosions may result from the use of a 40-mm round, such as those used in the US Army standard M79 grenade launcher, although that is just one example. Other sizes may also be employed. The 40-mm round has some advantages. These include the ability of a helicopter to hold four hundred 40-mm rounds only weighing about 200 pounds. The center cores of these rounds can hold many types of retardants in different volumes and different configurations and detonations patterns and timing. This may replace several thousands of gallons of water and air dropped retardants that have a low percentage hit rate and may evaporate before landing on the fire. The vehicles here can fly at night, a period which is best for fighting fires and often when other vehicles cannot fly due to low visibility.
One should note that other types of rounds may be used that are not belt fed, such as artillery or mortar shells. The casing or cartridge of the round may comprise a standardized, typically military or law enforcement sized round, such as a 105-mm howitzer round, a 40-mm grenade round, an 82-mm mortar shell, etc. This discussion refers to these as ‘standardized’ sizes.
Casing 92 contains fuselage 96 that carries the payload of the round 98, which in this case is a fire-retardant material. In one embodiment, the fire retardant may comprise a pyrotechnic gel including a non-toxic, alginate-geopolymer, basalt fiber fire retardance mixture. The base plug 100 of the cartridge has a percussion primer 102 that ignites when struck with a firing pin. The primer causes the larger charge, typically the propellant, to ignite that propels the round out of the barrel of whatever “weapon” is firing the round. The term “barrel” as used here means any structure through which a round moves once the primer has been fired. In the fire suppression world, the device is not a weapon, but it may take the form of the weapon. High pressure 104 chamber under the propellant cup 108, has vent holes 110 that allow excess gases to escape the chamber, as the other gases propel the round outwards. The timer fuse 112 then causes the round to detonate when it reaches the target. In one embodiment the timer fuse comprises a geopolymer basalt fiber precision timer fuse insert. As the round fires and strikes the target, reducing any remaining materials becomes important. In one embodiment, nose cone 106 may comprise a biodegradable material, reducing any remnant materials.
All features disclosed in the specification, including the claims, abstract, and drawings, and all the steps in any method or process disclosed, may be combined in any combination, except combinations where at least some of such features and/or steps are mutually exclusive. Each feature disclosed in the specification, including the claims, abstract, and drawings, can be replaced by alternative features serving the same, equivalent, or similar purpose, unless expressly stated otherwise.
It will be appreciated that variants of the above-disclosed and other features and functions, or alternatives thereof, may be combined into many other different systems or applications. Various presently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications, variations, or improvements therein may be subsequently made by those skilled in the art which are also intended to be encompassed by the following claims.
This disclosure claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/303,803, titled “Solar eVTOL Drone Tower,” filed on Jan. 27, 2022, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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63303803 | Jan 2022 | US |