A solar-powered microdrone weighing just 4.2 grams developed in China

Aug. 30 () –

A team of researchers at Beihang University in Beijing has developed a microdrone that weighs just 4.21 grams, lighter than a sheet of folio-sized paper.

The team’s research on the world’s smallest and lightest solar-powered microdrone, called “CoulombFly”, has been published in the Nature magazine.

Shen Wei, a PhD student at Beihang University and lead author of the paper, has been researching this topic since his undergraduate years.

“Solar-powered drones were developed decades ago, but they were mostly large in size. In 2019, the National University of Singapore created a helicopter that was considered the smallest at the time. However, reducing the size further proved to be a challenging task. Therefore, our research takes a different technological approach to tackle this problem,” Shen said. quoted by People’s Daily online.

Shen said his first encounter with electrostatic motors was during his junior year, as part of a summer research project. During his graduate studies, he faced significant challenges and even thought about abandoning the subject due to the prevailing belief that electrostatic motors were not particularly useful.

“The concept of using an electrostatic motor to develop a microdrone came to me during a sleepless night. I contemplated the potential of coupling a propeller to an electrostatic motor to achieve flight. Based on my knowledge of electrostatic motors, I was convinced that they could spin at remarkable speeds and generate ample lift, provided I figured out a suitable frame,” Shen recalled. “In just three weeks of testing, we confirmed its ability to fly”said.