One of the nice surprises during CES 2016 ought to be the claimed first ever concept drone that can autonomously fly a human being – the EHang 184.
It is essentially a quadcopter with a big enough cabin. According to the specs on the company’s website, there are two 1.5m propellers loaded on each shaft, 8 in total. The cabin is roughly 2 meters high and 1 meter wide, quite roomy for a person.
Inside the cabin, it’s got a good-looking seat and a 12-inch touchscreen stretching to the front. There are features like air conditioning, 4G network, a trunk for up to 16-inch luggage, a reading light and a downward camera. This thing can hover for 23 minutes and fly at an average speed of 100 km/h (or 62 miles/h). It translates into roughly 38 km or 24 miles in distance.
Now let us talk about different scenarios for the battery. Our starting point is the 14.4 kWh needed for a trip and the 106 kW maximum output, from the specs online.
One scenario would be to use a battery of just 14.4 kWh. Based on the specific energy data of current lithium-ion battery packs in electric cars (available at our homepage), a 14.4 kWh battery pack most likely weigh more than 100 kg. For example, the newly released Chevrolet Bolt electric car from GM has a 60 kWh battery which is as heavy as 435 kg.
The net weight of EHang 184 is 200 kg. Can half of the weight come from the battery for drones?
Even if the answer is yes, there certainly is room for batteries to improve. United State Advanced Battery Consortium (USABC, formed by Fiat Chrysler, Ford and GM) set a goal of 235 Wh/kg for battery packs by the year of 2020. Then the 14.4 kWh would weigh around 60 kg.
Now say EHang can carry the 14.4 kWh battery around. Pulling 106 kW out of it can be another issue. The Chevy Bolt 60 kWh battery’s power is 150 kW – a power-to-energy ratio of 2.5. In this scenario for EHang 184, the power-to-energy ratio is over 7.
Actually there is high-power batteries on the market, like the Microvast LpCo batteries. They can have a power-to-energy ratio of 4, but at the sacrifice of the specific energy, meaning the batteries are much heavier at the same energy.
As another scenario, say the drone needs 20% additional energy reservoir (it probably should), then the battery size is 17.3 kWh. It leaves 80 kg for other components of the drone. And still, the power-to-energy ratio is too high.
What if we keep the power-to-energy ratio and the power requirement at 4 and 106 kW respectively? Then we need a 26.5 kWh battery. The mass of this battery will be very close to 200kg already.
As we can see, EHang 184 put quite some pressure on the battery technology, namely higher specific energy so batteries can weigh less, and higher power-to-energy ratio so batteries can output more power. These (and many other parameters like cost, safety and temperature tolerance) are in line with the current demand on battery performance from the car industry.
EHang 184 looks like a nice technical concept with good market outlook. Maybe we should build such a battery to make it fly.
help wanted
6 Feb 2016Thanks for a marvelous posting! I truly enjoyed reading
it, you may bbe a great author.I will ensure that I bookmark
your blog and will often come back in the future. I want too encoyrage you to ultimately continue your great work, have a niice afternoon!
help wanted
6 Feb 2016Thanks for oness marvelous posting! I actually enjoyed
reading it, you will be a great author.I will ensure that
I bookmark youur blog and may come back down the road.
I want too encourage you to definitely continue
your great work, have a nice morning!
Shelli
8 Feb 2016Remarkable things here. I am very satisfied to see your
article. Thanks so much and I’m taking a look ahead to touch you.
Will you please drop me a e-mail?
EM Analyst 1
12 Feb 2016Thank you. Please subscript on our homepage emvalley.com
Hugo
8 Feb 2016Wonderful blog! I found it while searching on Yahoo News.
Do you have any tips on how to get listed in Yahoo
News? I’ve been trying for a while but I never seem to get there!
Thank you
Rosaria
8 Feb 2016Hi there, I want to subscribe for this weblog to obtain most recent updates,
thus where can i do it please help out.
EM Analyst 1
12 Feb 2016Thanks. Go to our homepage emvalley.com There is a subscription link at the bottom.
dr oz garcinia cambogia
8 Feb 2016Thankfulness to my father who stated to me on the topic of this web site,
this website is truly remarkable.
garcinia cambogia for weight loss
8 Feb 2016Hi there, There’s no doubt that your site may be having web browser compatibility issues.
When I take a look at your site in Safari, it looks fine however,
if opening in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping issues.
I just wanted to give you a quick heads up! Other than that, fantastic blog!
georgiarealestatelicense.blogspot.com
8 Feb 2016I think the admin of this site is actually working hard
in favor of his site, as here every information is quality based
stuff.
dentist offices that accept medicaid
9 Feb 2016Hi there! I’m at work browsing your blog from my new iphone
3gs! Just wanted to say I love reading your blog and look forward to all your posts!
Keep up the superb work!
stickers
11 Feb 2016Heya i’m for thhe first time here. I found this boafd and I to find It really useful & it helped me out
much. I aam hokping to provide something back and help othrs such aas you helpe me.
bastcilk doptb
24 Feb 2016You actually make it appear so easy together with your presentation but I find this matter to be really one thing which I think I would never understand. It sort of feels too complex and very huge for me. I am taking a look ahead for your subsequent post, I will attempt to get the hold of it!
BoyceRUphaus
2 Mar 2016I don’t know if it’s just me or if perhaps everybody else encountering problems with your website.
It seems like several of the text within your posts are running off of
the screen. Can someone else please provide feedback and inform
me if this is happening in their mind too? This can be considered a issue with my internet browser because I’ve had this happen previously.
Many thanks
bastcilk doptb
3 Mar 2016Hello There. I discovered your weblog the use of msn. This is an extremely neatly written article. I will be sure to bookmark it and come back to read extra of your helpful info. Thank you for the post. I will definitely return.
eebest8 best
8 Jul 2016“A round of applause for your blog post.Much thanks again. Want more.”