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Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteResearchers have built fixed-wing drones that can detect rising air and use it to stay aloft with sharply reduced propulsion. They do not fly on zero energy: they still need power to launch, control the aircraft and travel forward. The breakthrough is teaching a drone when and how to trade its own motor power for lift already present in the atmosphere.
How a drone can gain height from air
Sun-warmed ground heats the air above it. That warmer air rises in columns called thermals, while nearby air may sink. A glider can climb if the surrounding air rises faster than the glider descends through it. By moving out of sinking air and circling in an updraft, it can gain height without relying on its motor for the climb.
Thermals are not fixed features that an aircraft can simply navigate to on a map. UTEP’s Albatross project describes them as small, short-lived and random; researcher John Bird noted in a September 2025 UTEP release that weather models do not pick up these local patterns. A soaring drone must therefore recognize useful air from what it senses during flight.
How autonomous soaring works
The aircraft’s control system looks for evidence that the air is helping it, then adjusts its flight path to remain in that air. Depending on the design, useful clues can include changes in airspeed and altitude, vertical-wind acceleration, differences in airflow across the wings, roll-wise torque and gust measurements. The system then changes bank angle, pitch or motor use to exploit the lift or wind energy it has found.
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Inferring lift from aircraft motion
NASA’s Cloud Swift used a Piccolo autopilot to infer the location and strength of lift from changes in airspeed and altitude, rather than relying on a dedicated updraft sensor. When it detected a thermal, it shut off its motor and circled within the rising air. This approach uses the aircraft’s own response as evidence that it has entered useful lift.
Learning a soaring policy
A Salk Institute and UC San Diego team used reinforcement learning to teach gliders how to respond to shifting thermals. Their system used vertical-wind acceleration and roll-wise torque as cues, then controlled bank angle and pitch. Rather than follow a single fixed route, the aircraft learned a policy from field experience, where turbulence, sensor noise and changing conditions complicate decisions.
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Harvesting gusts
RMIT and ISAE-Supaéro developed a related approach using gust sensors and an onboard computer. The drone detected gusts and thermals and used them to gain speed or altitude, reducing the workload on its propulsion system. Unlike NASA’s Cloud Swift, which inferred lift from aircraft motion, this approach included dedicated gust sensing.
What the flight demonstrations achieved
| Project | Aircraft and control approach | Reported result |
|---|---|---|
| NASA Cloud Swift (2013) | 15-pound modified motor-glider; Piccolo autopilot inferred lift from airspeed and altitude changes and shut off the engine in a thermal. | NASA reported 60 minutes of added endurance. Across 23 updrafts, the aircraft gained an average of 565 feet; in one strong thermal, it climbed 2,770 feet. |
| Salk Institute and UC San Diego (2018) | Two-metre-wingspan gliders trained with reinforcement learning, using vertical-wind acceleration and roll-wise torque as cues. | The gliders reached 700 metres (nearly 2,300 feet). |
| RMIT and ISAE-Supaéro (2018) | Gust sensors and an onboard computer helped the drone use gusts and thermals to gain speed or altitude. | The cited RMIT release describes the results as a major step in energy harvesting for drones but does not state a numerical endurance or altitude result. |
These results measure different things: extra endurance, altitude gained in updrafts and height reached. They should not be treated as a direct ranking of the systems, since the reported demonstrations used different aircraft, control methods and performance measures.
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Why “almost no power” does not mean no battery
Soaring can sharply reduce the propulsion needed to stay aloft or climb, but it does not eliminate a drone’s energy needs. The aircraft still needs power for launch, flight control and forward travel, and an engine or motor may be needed when usable lift is absent. The phrase “almost no power” describes reduced propulsion demand during soaring—not a drone that can fly indefinitely without energy.
Thermals and gusts are also unpredictable. A drone may have to leave a weak or fading updraft, and turbulence and sensor noise make it harder to estimate where the useful air is and how long it will last. UTEP’s description of local lift as random and short-lived and the field unpredictability noted in the Salk Institute release help explain why a successful demonstration is not proof of reliable soaring in every condition.
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What soaring drones could be used for
Longer flight on a limited onboard energy supply could help with missions where endurance matters more than speed. NASA has identified forest-fire monitoring, traffic control and search and rescue as possible applications. UTEP frames autonomous soaring as a way to extend the range of long-distance unmanned aircraft while reducing onboard power use.
NASA has also discussed the possibility of flight on Mars using dust devils. That is a proposed application, not evidence that a soaring drone has already demonstrated such a mission. More broadly, the cited projects show promising techniques and specific flight results, not widespread commercial deployment or all-weather operation.
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