Dubai Electricity and Water Authority’s (DEWA)’s Research & Development Centre has registered a patent for an electromagnetic inductive charging system for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV).
The system supports air-to-air recharging by using a group of UAVs to charge the main one through electromagnetic induction.
Eng. Waleed Bin Salman, Executive Vice President of Business Development and Excellence at DEWA, said that the patent supports DEWA’s efforts to increase its UAV operations. These include automatic regular checking of photovoltaic modules at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park; the largest single-site solar park in the world.
DEWA uses UAVs to ensure solar photovoltaic panels are performing well. The new charging system, says Bin Salman, “enables longer working hours for UAVs. It saves time and effort, increases productivity, and increases the accuracy of maintenance operations.”
His Excellency Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA, praised the researcher’s continuous efforts which have resulted in a system to increase the efficiency of operations that use UAVs. Al Tayer noted that patents registered by the R&D Centre also support efforts to make the centre a global platform for promising technologies.
“At DEWA, we work to include innovation in our different strategies and initiatives. This is part of the Dubai 10X initiative which mandates the Government of Dubai to be a global leader that is 10 years ahead of all other cities through government innovation and the reformation of traditional work mechanisms. We intend DEWA to keep pace with the Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies to shape the future and create a knowledge-based, competitive economy that uses innovation and future technologies,” added Al Tayer.