Hydrogen Drone
Developing a hydrogen-powered drone with a spherical tank design
The project focuses on the design and development of a drone based on hydrogen technology and an innovative spherical hydrogen tank design in lightweight construction. The shape of the tank and its integration into the drone platform as a supporting element should significantly improve key properties essential in drone applications (flight duration, flight altitude, effectiveness, etc.).
Current drone platforms primarily use LiPo batteries as their energy source. Missions with longer flight times, such as search flights by fire departments or the transport of medicines either cannot be accomplished by LiPo-based systems at all, or only with significant complications. For this reason, there have been first developments in the area of hydrogen-powered drones. These can increase flight times by a factor of approximately three.
In this research project, the University of Applied Sciences Kufstein Tirol will collaborate with its project partners FEN Research GmbH, Twins GmbH, and Wolftank Adisa GmbH with a view to expanding the limits of hydrogen drones even further. By designing a drone platform comprising a spherical tank, it is hoped to achieve flight times of six times those of conventional drones powered by LiPo batteries. In addition, deployment scenarios such as swarm-based search operations or medicine delivery will be evaluated.