5G Fuel-Cell Drones Controlled at 10,000km
- By CDOTrends editors
- October 26, 2021
A South Korean drone company has succeeded in remotely controlling a drone from almost 10,000 kilometers away in California, U.S., as it seeks to prove the capabilities of next-generation drones.
In early October 2021, South Korean drone manufacturer Hogreen Air succeeded in remotely controlling two 5G hydrogen fuel cell drones at a drone park in the southern city of Gwangju from a 9,042-kilometer distance in Silicon Valley.
Hogreen Air is based in Gwangju and provides complete UAV solutions to government, defense, and other industries, and also extensive expertise in drone control and data handling.
The remote control system used for the demonstration was based on a 5G/LTE mobile network that resolves the instability caused by previous RF networks.
The drones can be controlled from anywhere in the world as long as they are connected to a mobile network.
The drones also use fuel cells powered by liquified hydrogen, which is 800 times denser than hydrogen gas.
Unlike other drones that can fly no longer than 10 to 30 minutes using lithium batteries, the Hogreen Air drones can fly longer than 12 hours.
The drones also performed search-and-rescue operations during the demonstration to find missing individuals using an AI-based facial recognition program.
Hogreen has also succeeded in controlling a drone in South Korea from Germany using LTE communication.
The company is partnering with U.K. fuel cell engineering developer Intelligent Energy, using the company’s fuel cells to fly three times longer than batteries.
Image credit: iStockphoto/georgealmanza