Power Management for Long-Range Drones

Compact, quiet, and multi-purpose vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft with electric propulsion and articulating thrusters for enhanced safety, flexibility, and efficiency. The aircraft has a modular fuselage design to accommodate passengers, cargo, and medical transport. The main rotors provide lift, and tiltable thrusters provide additional lift, thrust, and control. The thrusters can rotate from 0 to 90 degrees for forward flight and have elevons for roll/pitch control. This allows efficient hovering, cruise efficiency, and reduced noise compared to traditional helicopters. The aircraft has separate electric motors for the thrusters to avoid complex transmissions. It also has a modular battery system for charging or swapping to extend range.

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An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that can transition between flying and rolling on the ground using a passively deformable airframe. The UAV has a rolling structure inside a body with reconfigurable joints connecting the body to the propellers. The joints allow the propeller arms to pivot and reorient as the UAV transitions between flying and rolling. This enables efficient rolling motion with lower power consumption compared to flying. The UAV can also directly control rolling and turning motions while rolling.

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A power supply system for unmanned aerial vehicles that allows tethered flight with interchangeable ground stations to provide power to the UAVs. The system has a ground station with a connector to connect the tether to the ground power supply. The UAV has an aerial power supply with a connector to connect the tether. The ground station can deliver a selected voltage to the tether. The aerial power supply converts the voltage on the tether to the UAV's required voltage. This allows using the same aerial power supply for different UAVs by matching the ground station voltage to the UAV's power needs.

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Wireless power delivery system that enables long-range power transmission to devices like drones and electronics far away from the power source using an array of antennas. The system receives beacon signals from client devices to determine their locations. It then focuses energy delivery to those devices by adjusting phase of the signals sent through the antenna array. This allows efficient wireless charging over longer distances compared to close-range magnetic resonance systems.

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Autonomous drone operations using docking stations integrated into clothing, helmets, vehicles, etc. The drones can autonomously dock, charge, and transfer power wirelessly to the stations. They can also form groups to coordinate tasks and share functions. The stations have imaging sensors to guide drone docking. The drones have docking ports to connect to the stations. This allows continuous drone flight with in-air docking and charging.

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Drones can land on fixed security cameras to recharge their batteries and transfer data using dedicated landing pads on the cameras. This allows drones to extend their flight time and reliably transmit captured footage by leveraging the power and connectivity of fixed cameras. The drone landing pads on cameras have power ports to recharge drone batteries and data ports to transfer drone data. When a drone lands, it connects to these ports on the camera to access its power and network connection. This enables the drone to recharge mid-flight and offload its data to the camera's network connection.

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An aircraft power system that combines an electric motor and a gas turbine to extend the range of electric aircraft. The system has a compact, high-power density design with a unique gearbox configuration. The gas turbine compressor and electric motor are integrated together with a gearbox that has multiple spur gear stages. This allows both the compressor and motor to share the same output shaft. A freewheel mechanism allows the motor to disconnect from the shaft during regenerative braking. This allows the gas turbine to spin the motor for charging during descent, while the motor spins the compressor during climb. The integrated layout reduces size and weight compared to separate motor and turbine systems.

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Distributed multi-propeller vertical take-off and landing aircraft hybrid power system for long range flight with improved endurance. The system has a parallel hybrid setup with multiple engines, generators, batteries, and motors. The engines, generators, and batteries are integrated and share cooling/lubrication. The system intelligently manages power allocation between engines, batteries, and motors based on flight mode and accelerator position. In vertical takeoff/landing, all engines start and provide peak power. In hover/cruise, batteries power the motors until needed, then engines ramp up. This allows smaller engines for cruising and avoids oversizing. In emergency, a failed engine is disconnected and batteries/adjacent engine take over.

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Hybrid power system for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that improves flight safety and stability by stabilizing the power output. The hybrid system combines an engine with a battery pack. A control system monitors the UAV's power demands and generates compensating signals. It adjusts the engine throttle and battery charging to match the power needs. This compensates for engine output lag and stabilizes the overall power supply. The control logic uses feedforward compensation based on UAV demand changes.

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A hybrid propulsion system and control method for lightweight fixed-wing UAVs weighing 60-70 kg that improves efficiency, flexibility, and noise reduction compared to traditional direct-drive engines. The hybrid system uses a gas engine and electric motors. It has four power modes: fastest, standard (most efficient), energy-saving, and silent. The standard and energy-saving modes use a learning algorithm to optimize power distribution between engines and motors based on flight conditions. This adaptive hybrid power system enables targeted performance optimization, improves fuel efficiency, and allows silent cruising for missions requiring stealth.

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Method for flying electric aircraft using contactless network wireless power supply to enable long-duration flights without carrying heavy batteries. The method involves using wireless charging pads on the ground power grid to charge the aircraft mid-air. The aircraft routes are optimized based on environmental factors to conserve energy. This allows the aircraft to fly for longer distances without needing to land and swap batteries. The wireless charging eliminates the need for onboard batteries and restrictive flight paths near power lines.

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Hybrid power system for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that improves efficiency and endurance compared to using just batteries or engines. The system uses a combination of a piston engine, generator, electric motor, clutch, and battery pack. It allows the UAV to fly in different modes optimized for specific conditions. The modes include engine power alone, motor power alone, engine and motor simultaneously, and engine with generator charging the battery. This enables the UAV to operate efficiently in various flight scenarios by matching the power sources to the demands.

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Hybrid unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that uses parallel high-power density and high-energy density power sources to enable vertical takeoff/landing and extended flight time. The UAV has a fuselage and wings, with the power system being a brushless motor driving a propeller. Inside the fuselage, there are separate sets of high-power density (lithium batteries) and high-energy density (combinations of lithium batteries, fuel cells, solar cells, and internal combustion engines) power sources. During vertical takeoff/landing, the high-power density batteries power the propeller. For extended flight, the high-energy density batteries provide power and can charge the high-power density batteries. This allows the UAV to balance high-power needs for vertical takeoff/landing with extended flight range using optimized power sources.

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Long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) hybrid power system that combines a lithium battery with a fuel engine and generator for efficient and lightweight power. The system uses a flight control system to optimize power usage based on altitude and load. It starts with the battery providing power during takeoff, then charges during flight. At high altitudes, the engine shuts off and the battery powers the UAV. This avoids inefficiencies of always using the engine. The engine restarts when descending to recharge the battery. It also uses high-altitude restart and short-term motor overload to save weight. The system switches between subsystems based on sensors like altitude and temperature.

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Energy efficient method for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to wake up and communicate with sensor nodes in a wireless network where the nodes can't be powered by wires or batteries. The method involves optimizing the UAV's flight path and the sensor nodes' wakeup times to minimize total energy consumption. It splits the communication process into two stages: setup and data transfer. By alternately optimizing the node schedules and UAV path, it finds a suboptimal solution to the mixed integer nonconvex optimization problem.

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Optimizing resource allocation for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in wireless power supply networks to improve system efficiency and prevent data loss. The method jointly optimizes UAV flight position, wireless energy transmission time, and wireless information transmission time for multiple ground nodes. It maximizes the sum of effective capacities, which represents the maximum constant arrival rate of data that can be supported with guaranteed quality of service. This reduces delay and prevents backlogging in node buffers. By considering both energy and information transmission, it improves overall resource utilization compared to separating them.

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Downlink power control for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) data links that improves efficiency and range by adjusting transmission power based on UAV distance. The power control method involves the UAV and ground station exchanging distance measurements over the uplink. The ground station provides the UAV with a lookup table of transmit powers based on distance segments. The UAV then uses the segmented table to automatically adjust its downlink power as it flies. This reduces power consumption compared to fixed power or open loop methods while maintaining reliable communication over long distances.

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Low-power consumption optimization method for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) assisted backscatter edge computing networks. The method involves using UAVs to provide energy and computation offloading for devices with limited power and shielding between them and base stations. The UAVs transmit RF signals to power the devices, which communicate with the UAVs using backscatter. Devices offload computationally intensive tasks to the UAVs, which return results. This allows devices to conserve power compared to active transmission. Devices store remaining UAV-provided energy for later use. The UAV trajectory is optimized to balance energy consumption vs QoS.

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Method for optimizing energy utilization and network coverage in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) assisted wireless sensor networks. The method involves two phases: node registration and energy carrying communication. In the registration phase, sensor nodes inform the UAV of their energy levels. In the communication phase, the UAV hovers over nodes with low energy to charge them. The UAV balances charging time vs flight distance to maximize coverage. It also maintains a minimum received power threshold to ensure efficient charging. By registering node energy and balancing charging vs flight, the UAV can optimize energy utilization and distribute charge evenly among nodes.

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Energy-efficient unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) relay cooperative communication system for expanding network coverage with optimal power consumption. The method involves UAV relays collecting energy from previous relays instead of batteries. It optimizes relay node placement, signal coding, and power allocation to maximize information rate while minimizing energy consumption. The UAV relays cooperatively transmit data by relaying signals through multiple hops. The method uses signal-to-noise ratio approximations to convert the optimization problem into convex form for efficient solution.

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An automated energy management system for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) operating in near space that enables extended flight times. The system uses both solar power and fuel engines to balance energy generation and storage. It intelligently switches between solar and fuel power based on real-time consumption and availability. This allows the UAV to fly continuously for 24 hours at high altitudes by leveraging both power sources optimally. The system monitors energy needs and dynamically adjusts power generation and storage to maintain flight capability.

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Method and apparatus for controlling transmission power of unmanned vehicles in a wireless communication system to balance link reliability and interference mitigation. It involves checking the margin and required power of a non-mission data link, comparing it to the maximum power, and determining the optimal transmission power based on the margin. This prevents overpowering that causes interference while ensuring adequate link quality. The ground station can also send power control commands to adjust the unmanned vehicle's transmit power.

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Hybrid power supply system for unmanned aerial vehicles that allows the UAV to fly longer by efficiently managing power sources. The system has a power generation unit like solar panels or fuel cells, and a charging unit like batteries. A distribution unit intermittently switches power between the generation and charging units based on their states. This ensures the charging unit stays full while avoiding over-discharging the gen unit. A control module optimizes power allocation. If the gen unit fails, an emergency control supplies power from the charged unit. If an emergency is detected, it lands the UAV. The gen and charging units report power levels to a UAV controller.

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Powertrain control system and method for vertical take-off and landing air vehicles like drones to maintain battery charge level during flight. The system has a hybrid powertrain with engine, generator, motor, and battery. The control system charges the battery during flight by driving the engine based on motor power needs and battery charge level. This keeps the battery at a minimum charge rather than depleting it. This allows consistent battery charge for vertical takeoff/landing drones without needing higher capacity batteries.

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Energy collection method for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) edge computing systems using simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) to extend UAV endurance. The method involves optimizing energy efficiency of the UAV swarm by coordinating power allocation between base station and relays. Steps include: building a UAV swarm working model, calculating energy consumption and efficiency, determining optimal power allocation between base station and relays, and implementing the allocation in the swarm. This balances energy between base station and relays to maximize overall system endurance.

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Power management system for long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles that allows balancing of battery pack discharge capacity to prevent damage and improve battery life. The system has a power input module, power transmission module, power output module, and power detection and control module. The transmission module has a first-level section with high-frequency inverters, transformers, rectifiers, and filters to lift the power from each battery pack. This allows autonomous balancing of pack discharge since the packs are lifted separately. A second-level section then provides a constant current to the output module to avoid excessive discharge of low-power packs. This improves pack utilization, prevents damage, and maximizes flight time by balancing pack discharge.

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Battery pack equalization control method for long-endurance drones that dynamically adjusts the output power of individual battery packs to balance discharge and prevent over-discharge. The method involves monitoring the output voltages of all packs, finding the minimum, and setting that as the balance target. The packs are then charged/discharged at different rates to reach the target voltages within a specified time. This prevents packs from dropping too low and draining the whole system.

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Maximizing energy efficiency in a drone-assisted D2D communication network by optimally allocating resources like spectrum and power. It considers uncertainties like channel gains and user positions, converts the optimization problem into a convex form, and uses a Lagrangian dual theory and sub-gradient algorithm to find an analytic solution. This improves robustness and efficiency compared to other algorithms as it accounts for factors like distance and channel quality.

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Communication method and system for vertical take-off and landing fixed-wing drones to reduce power consumption and improve flight duration. The method involves calculating the real-time signal strength between the drone and control device based on distance and power. If the signal strength is below a threshold, a power enhancement signal is sent to the drone to increase communication power. This prevents the drone from always using high power for communication, reducing consumption and extending flight time.

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Millimeter wave network communication method for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) assisted wireless power supply that improves efficiency and reliability of emergency communication systems using UAVs as flying base stations. The method dynamically adjusts parameters like beamforming and response time slots based on user distribution to optimize performance and battery life. It also calculates communication periods, charge ratios, and throughputs to find the best UAV flight paths. The method aims to maximize user data rates, extend battery life, and dynamically match beamforming to user density as UAVs fly over unknown disaster areas.

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A drone design to extend flight time by capturing energy from the motor that drives the propeller. The drone has two DC motors with connected shafts. The main motor drives the propeller and is powered by a battery. The secondary motor rotates in synchronization with the main motor due to their shared shaft. A control unit manages both motors. As the primary motor rotates, it spins the secondary motor. This motion generates current in the secondary motor's windings due to the magnetic field. This current is harvested and used to charge the battery, effectively capturing some of the propeller motor's own output to extend flight time.

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Autonomous power management for drones that can optimize power usage during flight, ensure battery charging, monitor system health, and handle failures. The method involves real-time monitoring of propeller and battery system states, adjusting propeller thrust, and redistributing power to minimize total energy consumption. It uses a model to correlate propeller control values with forces, sends aerodynamic data to the model, compares control margins to determine correction amounts, and redistributes control paths to optimize energy use.

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Communication system for improving the endurance of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) by dynamically adjusting the UAV's communication power based on real-time signal strength. The system receives UAV positioning data and power levels. It calculates the UAV's distance and signal intensity using trigonometry. If the signal strength is below a threshold, it sends a power increase command to the UAV to boost communication range. This prevents UAVs from wasting power on excessive communication when signals are weak.

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Optimizing flight time and energy efficiency of drones used as mobile base stations for wireless communication and energy transfer to ground sensors. The optimization involves finding the drone's optimal flight speed and schedule for energy transfer and data collection to minimize flight time while meeting communication requirements. The drone provides wireless power to sensors via RF energy harvesting, allowing sensors to operate without batteries. The optimization algorithm iteratively computes energy transmission and data collection times for each sensor.

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Hybrid power system for vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft that improves range by using separate battery systems optimized for hover, transition, and cruise modes. The system has a high power battery for hover/transition and a high energy battery for cruise. It switches between the batteries based on flight state and current draw. This allows using optimized batteries for each mode rather than compromising with a single battery type.

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Efficiently managing energy use in drone networks to enable longer mission durations. The drones in a network coordinate signal power levels to balance consumption and acquisition. When a drone sends a signal to another drone, it reduces the power to the minimum needed for reception. The receiving drone sends a return signal with the required minimum power level. This allows the original drone to modulate its signal power down to that level. The intermediate drone now receives the lower power signal with excess power. It harvests that excess power using an energy collection subsystem. This balances power consumption and acquisition between drones.

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Optimizing power consumption and reducing electromagnetic radiation of drones and remote controls by dynamically adjusting signal transmission power based on the distance between the drone and remote control. It reduces power waste and interference when flying close by compared to maintaining maximum power for long range flights.

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An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communication method and system that enables long-range UAV flights by intelligently managing communication resources. The method involves predicting UAV flight distance, and dynamically adjusting communication parameters like frequency and power based on that prediction. This optimizes communication efficiency for the specific flight distance. The system also includes heartbeat packets sent periodically to detect if the primary communication path is working, allowing backup paths to be used if necessary.

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Matching the power limits of a battery assembly with the actions performed by an electronic device like a drone. The power output capability of the battery is determined based on the attributes of the device's actions and the state parameters of the battery components. This allows better optimization of battery usage and performance for different actions, avoiding overly restrictive limits when components are similar.

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Optimizing energy consumption of a multi-robot system with relay UAVs to improve communication reliability and prolong system runtime in environments with obstructions. The optimization jointly plans the UAV flight paths, communication powers, and ground robot positions to minimize total system energy consumption while meeting communication requirements. It accounts for obstacles, distances, and data volumes.

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A hybrid power system for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that combines an engine and battery to improve power and endurance. The system has an engine power generation system, a battery system, and a hybrid management system connecting them. The engine starts and generates power. The battery charges from the engine and powers the UAV. The hybrid management system manages the engine, battery, and UAV electrical systems. This allows leveraging the benefits of both power sources, engine power for high output and battery power for long endurance, to optimize UAV performance.

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Optimizing the trajectory and resource allocation of a drone network with sensors to minimize network outage probability while using wireless power transfer to supply energy to the drones and sensors. The optimization involves jointly optimizing the drone flight path, time slot assignments, and power allocation to balance drone energy needs with sensor coverage. The optimization reduces interruption probability by ensuring stable, predictable power supply through wireless charging while coordinating drone movements and sensor assignments.

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Hybrid power system for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that combines an engine and battery to provide high power and longer flight times. The system has an engine for power generation, a battery system, and a hybrid power management system. The engine starts and charges the battery, which in turn powers the UAV. The hybrid management system optimizes power usage based on flight conditions. This allows silent electric flight for stealthy operations, but also high power for specialized tasks. The engine provides backup power if the battery fails.

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Optimizing the energy efficiency of hybrid power systems for drones by dynamically adjusting the power source based on flight mission planning. The method involves estimating the required energy and working mode for each phase of the mission. During flight, the system monitors conditions and makes corrections to the power source selection to maximize efficiency while meeting power demands. This allows tailored optimization of the hybrid system for specific missions rather than fixed configurations.

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Hybrid power system for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that provides both high energy density for endurance and high power density for peak loads. The system has two modules - a stable power output module with high energy density and a peak instantaneous power output module with high power density. A charge and discharge management module coordinates the charging and discharging between the modules. This allows leveraging the strengths of lithium batteries and supercapacitors without adding extra weight.

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Hybrid drone with extended flight time using a detachable external frame that contains a generator and internal combustion engine to supplement the drone's batteries. The external frame can be magnetically coupled to the drone body, allowing it to be separated for ground operation. When connected, the generator powers the drone and charges the batteries. When disconnected, the drone can fly using its own batteries. The external frame also has wireless charging capability to recharge the drone while detached. The drone controller manages power distribution between the batteries, generator, and engine to optimize flight time.

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Power management system for drones that improves battery life and flight performance by estimating remaining range based on battery models, balancing cell voltages, and limiting motor speeds when battery is low. The system has a battery pack with multiple cells, local management, and communication to the drone. It calculates remaining range using extended Kalman filters and battery models. It balances cell voltages by detecting max voltage differences and equalizing through a circuit. It limits motor speeds when battery is low to prevent overload.

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Hybrid drone with internal combustion engine and battery that enables high energy efficiency and extended flight time compared to battery-only drones. The hybrid drone has a generator to charge the battery from engine power, and a throttle control to open the engine based on acceleration. In hover, it charges the battery from the generator. In takeoff, it cuts engine power and uses battery. In emergencies, it uses battery instead of engine. The generator can be a regenerative turbine that captures exhaust gas energy. The engine throttle is controlled proportionally based on acceleration.

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High-efficiency long range drone with extended flight time using a dual power supply system and modular thrust unit design. The drone has a main power source consisting of an engine-generator unit for high thrust operations, and a secondary battery pack for lower thrust situations. The thrust units are arranged in a quadcopter configuration with two larger main units and two smaller auxiliary units. The main units have propellers on the top surface and the auxiliary units have propellers on the bottom. The modular thrust units can be moved horizontally to form a single wing shape when needed. This allows efficient long range flight by selectively supplying power from the main or auxiliary units based on thrust requirements.

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Hybrid power system for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that provides high power density for peak loads while maintaining long endurance. The system combines a stable high-energy battery with a high-power density supercapacitor. The supercapacitor provides instant power spikes for tasks like takeoff and maneuvering, while the battery handles sustained flight. The supercapacitors are integrated into the UAV structure like wings or fuselage to reduce weight.

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