Laser Power Beaming Control for Moving Photovoltaic Panels
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Solution Overview
Problem
Stratospheric unmanned aerial vehicles and drones face power shortages at night or in low sunlight conditions, limiting their continuous operation time, and existing wireless power transmission methods face regulatory and technical challenges.
Innovation Solution
A laser device is used to wirelessly feed power to photovoltaic panels on moving objects by accurately controlling laser light output based on object position, shape, and environmental conditions, ensuring efficient energy transfer.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If a laser beam is focused to a small spot size to achieve high manufacturing precision, then the power density becomes excessively high causing plasma formation and beam energy loss, but reducing the focus ratio lowers the manufacturing precision
Solution Approach 1:
A gas guide is introduced as an intermediary between the laser beam and the workpiece. The gas guide channels the laser beam through a confined gas path, allowing the beam to be focused to a small spot size for high precision while the gas environment prevents excessive energy concentration that would cause plasma formation and energy loss.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the physical parameters of the laser processing system by controlling the gas pressure and composition within the gas guide. By adjusting these parameters, the system achieves optimal balance between spot size concentration for precision and energy distribution to prevent plasma formation, thereby resolving the contradiction between manufacturing precision and energy loss.
2Manufacturing precision
If the laser beam is focused to a small spot size for high precision processing, then the power density becomes excessively high causing plasma formation, but using a larger spot size reduces manufacturing precision
Solution Approach 1:
The gas guide serves as a mediator that allows the laser beam to maintain a small focused spot size for high precision while the gas environment within the guide prevents plasma formation by controlling the interaction between the high-power-density beam and the surrounding atmosphere.
Solution Approach 2:
The gas guide creates a controlled gas environment (inert or reactive atmosphere) around the laser beam path. This controlled atmosphere prevents unwanted plasma formation that would occur in ambient air when using high power density, while still allowing the beam to be tightly focused for high precision processing.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Extends the continuous operation time of vehicles and drones by efficiently providing power to photovoltaic panels even in low sunlight conditions, enhancing their operational capabilities.
Implementation Method 1
When a laser beam is incident on a material to be processed, the material absorbs only a specific portion of the laser beam energy depending on the material properties and the laser beam wavelength
Implementation Method 2
a laser beam to a focal point with a small spot size, the power density of the laser beam at the focal point becomes excessively high and plasma is formed, resulting in loss of beam energy
Data Source
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AI summary
There is provided a laser device including: an output unit which outputs laser light; a receiving unit which receives position information indicating a position of a moving object; an image capture unit which captures an image of light from the moving object; and a control unit which controls an output of the laser light such that more of the laser light is radiated to a photovoltaic panel mounted on the moving object, based on the position of the moving object indicated by the position information and a captured image that is captured by the image capture unit, and there is provided a method which is executed by a computer, the method including: receiving position information indicating a position of a moving object; capturing an image of light from the moving object; and controlling an output of the laser light such that more of the laser light is radiated to a photovoltaic panel mounted on the moving object, based on the position of the moving object indicated by the position information and a captured image that is captured by the capturing the image.