Soaring in general seems like a ripe opportunity for automation. If someone makes software that can seek out and make use of lift (using various information so

Soaring in general seems like a ripe opportunity for automation. If someone makes software that can seek out and make use of lift (using various information sources), it could pave the way for very low-energy drones. EDIT: Interesting.... seems there is something already that handles the "circling and staying in thermals" part. https://ardupilot.org/plane/docs/soaring.html https://ardupilot.org/plane/docs/soaring.html https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.08215 https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.08215 "ArduSoar: an Open-Source Thermalling Controller for Resource-Constrained Autopilots"