When it comes to drones, the technology behind them opens up many possibilities. However, there has always been one major factor that limits drones across the board. A drone can only support a power source relative to its size. For most off the shelf drones, this means a fairly small battery. A bigger battery would mean needing to build a bigger drone. A bigger drone would need a bigger battery. Typically, commercial drones have a battery flight time of 20-30 minutes. Most drone operators will have a backup battery with them to enable longer flights. But when it comes to military grade drones, finding extended power sources is vital for longer operations.

For the large drones used by the United States Military forces, batteries alone are not reliable. These drones rely on fuel for power sources. For example, the Reaper, one of the most commonly used military drones, has a 4,000lb fuel capacity. Dr. Mike Kweon, program manager for the Versatile Tactical Power and Propulsion Essential Research Program at the U.S. Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC) Army Research Laboratory (ARL) has pointed out that like the batteries found in commercial drones, the fuel used in military drones also has its limits. “The Army’s fleet of unmanned aircraft systems often experiences performance and reliability issues due to fuel property variations and their effects on the ignition,” Dr. Kweon said. “This results in decreased performance and potential catastrophic loss of aircraft platforms.”

For this reason, the ARL has been looking for ways to develop alternate fuel sources for drones. While the ARL employs some of the brightest minds, they have a long history of collaborating with private and public research facilities throughout the United States of America. This past September, the US Army, through the ARL, announced that they had awarded an $8 million grant to a Mechanical Science and Engineering Professor from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) to develop new fuel possibilities for unmanned aerial and ground vehicles.

UIUC is one of the top research universities in the country, it even boasts the second largest research library in the US. Professor and Kritzer Faculty Scholar Tonghun Lee runs UIUC’s Advanced Energy and Propulsion Research diagnostic laser lab. As outlined on the website, the lab is “dedicated to applying advanced laser and optical diagnostics to investigate the physics of new and advanced propulsion systems, energetically enhanced combustion, novel energy conversion systems, and thermal oxidation of alternative and renewable fuels.” Professor Lee is no stranger to cooperating with outside research labs and looks forward to the 4 year project he is about to embark upon with the ARL. The specifics of the research that Professor Lee will conduct are classified, but the general idea will be to find a better way to power drones used by the Army. The idea is to combine different types of fuel sources to see how they can be used to spark ignition systems reliably. The ignition and multi-fuel system also needs to be one that is environmentally friendly and easily accessible in combat type situations. To do this Professor Lee will apply machine learning algorithms along with practical experiments.

Professor Lee is not the only researcher to have been employed for this new initiative. Several other US university research labs have also been included in the ARL’s search for alternate drone power sources. “We are thrilled to be taking part in development of new technologies that will be integrated into new UAV propulsion systems in the future for the Army. Equally important is training the next generation of engineers who can serve our nation in this field of science,” Professor Lee said. “This partnership is very exciting. The laboratory set out on a mission to operationalize science for transformational overmatch.” The impact of such research reaches beyond military drone operations. As much of the world begins to utilize drones for everyday tasks, having drones with longer flight capacity is a long term goal. Longer flights without the need for heavier batteries would mean drones could be used for greater delivery services, inspection tasks, and even emergency services.

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