US 2026/0175976 A1Published application

Hovering Laser Swarm Illuminating And Neutralizing Moving Targets

OwnerOren Aharoninventor

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Abstract

High-power lasers generate substantial heat, often exceeding 50% of their total input power. This can degrade performance or cause catastrophic failures due to excessive temperatures. Special-purpose cooling units are available to manage this heat but are typically heavy and often rely on liquid cooling, making them unsuitable for use in flying drones. To address this challenge, the proposed concept utilizes a swarm of drones, each equipped with a relatively low-power laser. Each drone's laser is cooled by the air convection generated by its own propellers, eliminating the need for heavy cooling systems. The airflow is sufficient to maintain optimal laser operation. When higher power is required, such as for dazzling or damaging a target, the swarm collectively focuses all their lasers on the same target, combining their energy to achieve high-power levels effectively and efficiently while maintaining manageable thermal loads on individual drones.

Claims9

Dependent claims

A drone-based laser system comprising:

(a) a plurality of drones, each having a propeller that contributes to dissipating heat from a laser emitter mounted on the drone without the use of auxiliary cooling means;
and
(b) a control system that:
(i) controls the plurality of drones to operate in a detection mode in which each laser emitter emits pulses characterized by low average power and high peak power so as to illuminate and scan a wide field of view for targets;
and
(ii) in response to detection of a target, transitions the plurality of drones to a cooperative engagement mode in which the drones autonomously align and focus their laser beams on the detected target and increase the average emitted power of their laser emission so that the combined energy incident on the target is sufficient to dazzle or damage the target;
and
wherein the detection mode comprises the majority of the system's operational time such that airflow generated by the propellers provides sufficient convection cooling for each laser emitter during normal operation.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.