New research project could extend critical battery life for drones

Computers, servers and digital infrastructure account for around 10% of the world’s energy consumption. With rapidly increasing digitalisation and the spread of AI, that figure is bound to rise.

It is therefore crucial to find ways of reducing energy consumption in digital systems. That is exactly the aim of a new European research collaboration called E-CoRe (Energy-efficient Computing via Reversibility), which is supported by the EU and intends to train 13 highly specialised PhD students in this field.

One way of reducing digital energy consumption is through so-called reversible computing.

In conventional computer processing, information that is no longer needed is constantly being deleted, and when this happens, heat is released. This is simply a law of physics: computers continually waste energy deleting information.In systems based on reversible computing, by contrast, information is not deleted – it is instead folded together – and this not only means that calculations can always be run backwards. It also means that the system becomes more energy-efficient.

- Reversible computing has the potential to revolutionize the energy consumption of IT systems, says Ivan Lanese, professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering of the University of Bologna and coordinator of the project.

- However, this potential can only be realized by rethinking digital systems at every level, from circuits to applications. E-CoRe aims to initiate this revolution and to train experts capable of delivering it. It is an exciting challenge for the future of Europe’s digital landscape.

Observational drones

Reversible computing is still a relatively new field within computer science, and although it has shown promising results in areas such as simulation and robotics, the method has yet to be tested in concrete technologies.

One of the sectors that could benefit greatly from more energy-efficient computing is drones, says Ulrik Pagh Schultz Lundquist, who is a professor at the University of Southern Denmark, head of SDU’s drone centre and part of the E-CoRe project.

This applies in particular to drones used for observation or reconnaissance, which do not use large amounts of power for movement, but where most energy consumption comes from sensors or cameras and from intelligent software or AI that analyses the images.

- For multirotor drones, it makes no sense to work with reversible computing, because the motors already use so much power for flying that it would not make any noticeable difference, says Ulrik Pagh Schultz Lundquist.

- But there are types of drones that fly to a location, land, go into low-power mode and then simply sit and wait for something to happen. This can be used, for example, for wildlife monitoring and nature conservation, but also in military drones on the battlefield.

Balloon satellites – that is, stratospheric balloons sent high up to observe something on the Earth’s surface – like those from Odense-based Spaceline, could also benefit from more energy-efficient computing, as could fixed-wing drones with solar cells, which SDU’s drone centre has tested in wildlife reserves in Africa.

Two PhD students will be appointed at the University of Southern Denmark and attached to the E-CoRe collaboration: one at the drone centre and one in SDU Microelectronics, where researchers will work on the hardware components.

- What I find particularly inspiring in this project, is the opportunity to collaborate closely with Ulrik and his team, which will help establish a strong and lasting connection between his unit and our newly established SDU Microelectronics group, says Farshad Moradi, head of SDU Microelectronics.

- In this project, we contribute our expertise in advanced computing, combining probabilistic computing with principles inspired by spiking neural networks (SNNs).

Ulrik Pagh Schultz Lundquist, too, is very much looking forward to getting started. The plan is for the PhD positions to be filled before summer 2026, after which the work can begin.

- What makes this exciting is that a highly theoretical field of research can have direct significance for the digital technologies of the future. It is basic research, but it is basic research with clear application perspectives, says the professor.