Technological projects portfolio

Autonomous systems promise numerous applications for our societies: delivery by drone, optimization of industrial logistics, optimization of agriculture and many others.

However, due to the limited battery capacities and their recharging, users of autonomous systems have to make a choice between autonomy and mobility. In fact, 30% of a drone’s mass is dedicated solely to the battery, limiting payload carriage, all for just a few dozen minutes of autonomy.

The Heliosphere project aims to develop an essential building block for a wireless energy transmission system, to give a mobile system unlimited endurance without constraining its mobility.

The proposed solution consists of a ground transmitter that points an optical flux at an embedded photovoltaic module on the autonomous system, to power that system continuously.

This solution reduces system mobility only slightly (unlike power supply via an electrical cable) and offers significant gains in terms of payload and system availability (unlike battery swapping).

However, the photovoltaic inverters available on the market today are not relevant for this application. Converters based on III-V materials offer good conversion efficiency, but are prohibitively expensive. What’s more, none of the solar photovoltaic technologies are suitable for high-intensity, spatially inhomogeneous monochromatic lighting.

The aim of the Heliosphere project is to develop a converter compatible with the application: robust, with an advantageous performance/cost ratio and low weight. This will make the wireless power transmission system inexpensive and efficient.

Several application areas are targeted, such as logistics (powering robots in warehouses), air mobility (infrastructure inspection, security management during events or data acquisition for smart agriculture using drones), or rover powering for space applications.