Solarcopter powered by solar energy

A team of masters graduates from the Queen Mary University of London is expected to build the world's first photovoltaic (solar) helicopter. The project is called "Solarcopter" and the team hopes to create a prototype of a solar-powered multipurpose remote-controlled helicopter. The original prototype designed a photovoltaic panel that could collect solar energy, but it also had a fully charged backup battery. The backup battery can provide the required energy when the helicopter cannot stay in the air, such as rainy days.

Since then, the students have further enhanced it until they can take off and hover without needing reserve batteries. They explained that "in the current design, as long as there is sunlight, it will be able to last long enough." Although there is still a lot of work to do, they are pleased to have proved how Solarcopter works.

In order to achieve this goal, the students have gone through a long process. Most of Solarcopter is handmade, and they even designed their own Sun simulator for testing. The team conducted extensive experiments and tests to maximize its potential. They also used a variety of engineering software to develop many different designs to further improve the performance of the prototype.

Solarcopter is very useful and will have a wide range of uses, such as surveillance, search, rescue, cheaper transportation, and even traffic management. The team also hopes to further improve the design and add a swimming device such as a camera and GPS to make it able to cope with various usage needs.