Passenger carrying unmanned aerial vehicle powered by a hybrid generator system
AssigneeTop Flight Technologies, Inc.
InventorsLong N. Phan, Samir Nayfeh, Eli M. Davis
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An unmanned aerial vehicle includes at least one rotor motor configured to drive at least one propeller to rotate; a passenger compartment sized to contain a human or animal passenger; and a hybrid generator system configured to provide power to the at least one rotor motor and to generate lift sufficient to carry the human or animal passenger. The hybrid generator system includes a rechargeable battery configured to provide power to the at least one rotor motor; an engine configured to generate mechanical power; and a generator motor coupled to the engine and configured to generate electrical power from the mechanical power generated by the engine.
Claims29
An unmanned aerial vehicle comprising:
- at least one rotor motor configured to drive at least one propeller to rotate;
- a passenger compartment sized to contain a human or animal passenger, the at least one propeller configured to generate lift sufficient to carry the human or animal passenger;
- and
- a hybrid generator system configured to provide electrical energy to the at least one rotor motor, the hybrid generator system comprising:
- a rechargeable battery configured to provide electrical energy to the at least one rotor motor;
- an engine configured to generate mechanical energy;
- a generator motor configured to generate electrical energy from the mechanical power generated by the engine;
- and
- a coupling device directly coupling a rotor of the engine to the generator motor, the coupling device including a flexible coupling incorporating a cooling device.
An unmanned aerial vehicle comprising:
- a passenger compartment sized to contain a human or animal passenger;
- at least one rotor motor configured to drive at least one propeller to rotate, the at least one propeller configured to generate lift sufficient to carry the human or animal passenger;
- a data center configured to communicate with another unmanned aerial vehicle;
- and
- a hybrid generator system configured to provide electrical energy to the at least one rotor motor and to the data center, the hybrid generator system comprising:
- a rechargeable battery configured to provide electrical energy to the at least one rotor motor;
- an engine configured to generate mechanical energy;
- a generator motor configured to generate electrical energy from the mechanical power generated by the engine;
- a coupling device directly coupling a rotor of the engine to the generator motor, the coupling device including a flexible coupling incorporating a fan;
- a Hall effect sensor configured to generate a voltage signal based on a rotational speed of the rotor of the engine;
- and
- a control unit configured to control a throttle of one or more of the engine and the generator motor based on (i) the voltage signal generated by the Hall effect sensor and (ii) an energy demand of the data center.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.