Powering New Possibilities for Unmanned Aerial Systems
Sentient Blue is offering a solution to the persistent problem of short flight times that currently limits the flight times of 80% of the world’s UAV fleet, which is battery powered. The Sentient Blue hybrid microturbine system will increase flight times by a factor of 4 to 5. The increase in flight time will enable many more UAV missions than are currently possible. It will be a revolution in the UAV industry.
A Sentient Blue hybrid system uses the extremely high power to weight ratio of a micro gas turbine to burn readily available heavy fossil fuels such as diesel and Jet A1. Sentient Blue will leverage the energy density of readily available, heavy fossil fuels such as diesel and Jet -A1. These fuels have an energy density of 45 MJ/kg. The microturbine is coupled to a small, high-speed motor generator unit (MGU), which is the primary source of electrical power on board the UAV.
Don’t Let Batteries Bring You Down.
Lithium polymer (LiPo) batteries power 80% of the world’s UAV fleet. At present, battery powered multicopter UAVs are limited to a flight time of 20 to 30 minutes in fair weather. Operators have experienced flight times as short as 7 ½ minutes in the winter months because the energy density of LiPo batteries decreases with temperature. This performance limitation is due to the chemistry of lithium polymer battery technology, which can only provide an energy density of 1 Megajoule per kilogramme (MJ/kg).