Attain Energy (Attain), a frontrunner in wi-fi power-at-a-distance, introduced the profitable completion of a 10-hour autonomous drone flight powered by wi-fi energy beaming. The demonstration built-in onboard visible navigation, autonomous energy-management selections and on-demand distant energy supply, with none exterior intervention, bodily energy tether, GPS, flight-tracking sensors or guide flight controls.
Performed September 22 on the Virginia Tech Institute for Superior Computing as a part of Operational Vitality-Innovation’s (OE-I) 2026 Vitality Sentry occasion, the flight marked what Attain believes to be the primary business energy beaming demo streamed reside to contributors on the Pentagon.
The plane managed its personal power autonomously all through the flight. Utilizing onboard processing, it monitored its state of cost in actual time. At full cost, it launched the facility hyperlink and moved off-beam. At a programmed threshold, it returned and known as for energy. Attain’s electronically steered beam reacquired the platform and restored in-flight energy supply. The plane and transmitter dealt with your complete cycle machine-to-machine, with no operator enter. That form of self-managed power cycle is a core enabler for persistent, unattended drone operations.
The demonstration sustained flight for 10 hours and represented an roughly 400X extension of the drone’s 90-second battery.
“Earlier demonstrations of persistent drone flight have relied on exterior monitoring methods or different controls to maintain the drone in place,” stated Chris Davlantes, Founder and CEO of Attain. “What makes this achievement totally different is that we flew a regular quadcopter in absolutely autonomous, untethered flight for 10 hours, with out exterior flight controls or monitoring gear, and we might have gone for days. The drone accomplished its mission with full edge AI processing and with out GPS. It is a main step towards making persistent drone operations sensible and scalable in advanced environments, and we’re excited for upcoming product releases.”
A Demonstration of Autonomous, On-Demand Wi-fi Energy
- 10 hours of untethered, autonomous flight: Quadcopter operation with out GPS, exterior flight-tracking sensors or guide flight controls.
- Drone-directed power administration: The plane monitored battery state and independently requested when wi-fi energy ought to cease and resume.
- Autonomous departure and reacquisition: The drone briefly moved away from its energy place, returned and requested energy once more; the transmitter reacquired the receiver.
- Dynamic RF beam steering: Software program-defined electronics directed power to the receiver with out mechanical transmitter motion.
- Roughly 400X endurance versus check baseline: Ten hours sustained by distant energy in contrast with roughly 90 seconds of battery-only flight for the check configuration.
All of this was uniquely achieved leveraging Nationwide Protection Authorization Act (NDAA)-compliant drone parts, with key drone methods manufactured in the US by ModalAI.
“This demonstration represents an essential step towards making persistent autonomy an operational actuality,” stated Chris DePuma, Fight Energy Portfolio Lead, Operational Vitality–Innovation. “Bringing collectively autonomous flight, actual time monitoring, and steady wi-fi energy supply demonstrates how these applied sciences can work collectively to cut back logistical calls for and allow fully new mission capabilities for the warfighter.”
Advancing Wi-fi Energy for Protection and Past
Battery limitations stay a serious barrier to scaling autonomous operations. Small uncrewed aerial methods (sUAS) usually function for simply 30 to 40 minutes earlier than requiring a battery swap or recharge, proscribing their capacity to offer steady intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), perimeter safety, communications relay, and different mission-critical capabilities.
Attain’s know-how addresses this limitation by delivering power on to autonomous platforms whereas they function, decreasing charging infrastructure, battery substitute, and the personnel required to take care of steady operations.
Attain has obtained funding for a number of packages by means of the Division of Struggle’s Operational Vitality Functionality Enchancment Fund (OECIF), administered by means of OE-I. These packages assist the event of wi-fi energy capabilities for uncrewed aerial and floor methods, and different autonomous platforms, advancing the know-how towards operational use.
Past protection, the identical know-how has potential functions throughout industrial robotics, infrastructure inspection, public security, and different markets the place battery constraints restrict the productiveness and scalability of autonomous methods. By enabling gadgets to function longer with out human intervention, wi-fi energy will turn into an important infrastructure layer supporting the broader adoption of autonomy.
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