Small Form Factor Propulsion for UAVs

The U.S. Army is increasingly using small UAVs in order to increase the situational awareness and lethality of dismounted combat teams as part of the Soldier Borne Sensors initiative. These small UAV systems introduce the possibility of propeller contact injuries to the soldiers who deploy and retrieve them. Studies by the FAA’s Center of Excellence for Unmanned Aerial Systems found that even incidental contact with small spinning propeller blades can cause severe lacerations, while larger rotors can easily cause fatal injuries . Small UAV systems are also range limited by the efficiency and weight of their propulsion, which typically consists of a propeller, a servo drive motor, and a motor control board. These systems are inherently limited in how small the can be reduced in scale We envision a radical new propulsion method that both eliminates the possibility of propeller contact injuries and allows UAV propulsion to scale to even smaller sizes than are currently comprehended. We are building a tiny (micron-scale) engine that moves air. It operates by creating a small region of plasma and then accelerating that plasma with a strong electric field.