Drones that recharge directly on transmission lines • Hacker News Board

Re: Drones that recharge directly on transmission lines

#11

Post by yorwba » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 7:04 PM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #5

lkbm wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd assume otherwise you have to have a way for the drones to meter their usage and pay the power company. It will likely make power theft easier, but it seems entirely viable to have an account with the power company where you report "I drew X joules from line Y" and for them to bill appropriately.

That seems entirely unviable to me. Have you met… people? “Trust me, bro!” is something I wish my power company would do, but they installed a meter instead.

What's unviable about having the power company vet the thing that reports "I drew X joules from line Y" like they would vet any other meter?

Re: Drones that recharge directly on transmission lines

#12

Post by lesam » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 7:06 PM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #5

lkbm wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd assume otherwise you have to have a way for the drones to meter their usage and pay the power company. It will likely make power theft easier, but it seems entirely viable to have an account with the power company where you report "I drew X joules from line Y" and for them to bill appropriately.

That seems entirely unviable to me. Have you met… people? “Trust me, bro!” is something I wish my power company would do, but they installed a meter instead.

Depends. When millions are on the line between companies, people are surprisingly willing to take a hand-created excel file as 'proof'. For example: https://financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/tricolors-excel-g...

Re: Drones that recharge directly on transmission lines

#13

Post by bentcorner » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 7:06 PM UTC

Ccecil wrote: post #10

mikrl wrote: post #6

If this works via induction could you even eliminate the need for the drones to land? Assuming flight conditions are good, there would be a region around the wire (line of charge) with an electric/magnetic field that the drones could use, any shielding notwithstanding.

That was my thought as well...I suppose there may be something I am not thinking of. Perhaps they get more total energy if they "perch" on the tower.

My gut says there's something like an inverse-square law that governs how far away they can effectively charge.

Re: Drones that recharge directly on transmission lines

#14

Post by TomatoCo » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 7:07 PM UTC

Ccecil wrote: post #10

mikrl wrote: post #6

If this works via induction could you even eliminate the need for the drones to land? Assuming flight conditions are good, there would be a region around the wire (line of charge) with an electric/magnetic field that the drones could use, any shielding notwithstanding.

That was my thought as well...I suppose there may be something I am not thinking of. Perhaps they get more total energy if they "perch" on the tower.

It'll definitely charge faster, if only because it's drawing less power to stay up and getting closer. The only question is, is it like 10% or 100% faster?

Re: Drones that recharge directly on transmission lines

#15

Post by Aurornis » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 7:09 PM UTC

mikrl wrote: post #6

If this works via induction could you even eliminate the need for the drones to land? Assuming flight conditions are good, there would be a region around the wire (line of charge) with an electric/magnetic field that the drones could use, any shielding notwithstanding.

Coupling falls off rapidly with distance. It's why a thick enough phone case will interfere with magnetic charging, and that's only on the scale of a few millimeters.

Drones consume a lot of power while in flight. You can get a little bit of power out of powerlines standing underneath them with some tricks, but it's not enough to keep a drone in flight. At least not without something prohibitively large to couple to the line.

It's also risky to hover near a stationary object because the longer you hover, the more you're exposed to the risk of a wind gust knocking you into the nearby obstacle.

Re: Drones that recharge directly on transmission lines

#16

Post by kube-system » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 7:11 PM UTC

bentcorner wrote: post #13

Ccecil wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was my thought as well...I suppose there may be something I am not thinking of. Perhaps they get more total energy if they "perch" on the tower.

My gut says there's something like an inverse-square law that governs how far away they can effectively charge.

It’s exactly the inverse square law.

You get a million times more power if you can put a coil 1mm away from the wire than if you hover 1 meter away.

Re: Drones that recharge directly on transmission lines

#17

Post by echelon » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 7:13 PM UTC

lkbm wrote: post #3

Sniffnoy wrote: post #2

Huh, is that legal? I mean I guess it is when the power company is the customer, as they talk about, but otherwise?

I'd assume otherwise you have to have a way for the drones to meter their usage and pay the power company. It will likely make power theft easier, but it seems entirely viable to have an account with the power company where you report "I drew X joules from line Y" and for them to bill appropriately.

They'll use this narrative to fundraise and build. Then they'll build their own distributed charging infra that becomes a moat.

Re: Drones that recharge directly on transmission lines

#18

Post by roywiggins » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 7:15 PM UTC

ck2 wrote: post #7

I remember a demo where fluorescent tubes will glow, sometimes brightly, near high-power transmission lines

Goes back a long way:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nikola_Tesla_holding...

> The bulb is a prototype "fluorescent" light he invented consisting of a partially evacuated glass bulb with a single metal electrode. Nearby, probably behind the curtain, there is one of his Tesla coil high voltage oscillators which produces a radio frequency electric field. The electric field ionizes the gas in the bulb, causing it to glow similar to a neon light. This photo is a 2 second time exposure taken by the light of the bulb

Re: Drones that recharge directly on transmission lines

#19

Post by themafia » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 7:17 PM UTC

> Removing battery swaps is the last step to deploy UAVs autonomously at scale.

I can't say, as a citizen, that I'm particularly excited about this.

> Autonomous drones can deliver over 20x the inspection coverage for the same cost.

And we have 20x the manpower to review this footage? I wonder if you're just generating a bunch of data that cannot be practically used.

"More coverage" isn't always the best answer. "Better informed coverage" is probably the problem to solve here. Aside from that what is the maintenance interval on those drones? How does that incorporate into this system?

I think this is solving the problem in the wrong direction.

Re: Drones that recharge directly on transmission lines

#20

Post by notahacker » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 7:18 PM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #5

lkbm wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd assume otherwise you have to have a way for the drones to meter their usage and pay the power company. It will likely make power theft easier, but it seems entirely viable to have an account with the power company where you report "I drew X joules from line Y" and for them to bill appropriately.

That seems entirely unviable to me. Have you met… people? “Trust me, bro!” is something I wish my power company would do, but they installed a meter instead.

Feels like this is likely to be targeting government and major corporate clients, in which case they're probably in a strong place to negotiate agreements based on charge reported by the drone's on board software. Not to mention the utility companies themselves, who are mentioned as the initial market.