Nuclear drones!
Drones that recharge directly on transmission lines
101–110 of 149 posts
Re: Drones that recharge directly on transmission lines
#102I'm surprised this isn't already happening in Ukraine. They could fly small surveillance drones deep in enemy territory, perch on a power line, and send back lots of data. Not just video, but also sound and triangulating signals. This would also be useful in fog by monitoring major roads where high altitude drones and satellites would be obstructed.
I'm not like a drone-i-ologist or nothin, but from what I gather, both sides have gotten really good at detecting and jamming drone communication in the Ukraine/Russia conflict, which would probably make that a tough use case. I've read that the newer attack drones are controlled by a reaaallly long, reaaalllyy thin fiber optic line!
New attack models are using shielded electronics that don't need GPS and are immune to traditional jamming. Relying on computer vision and old school navigation math.
Go ~X speed for Y distance(+/-) on Z heading until you reach A landmark and then start a new set of instructions.
Re: Drones that recharge directly on transmission lines
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those fiber optic lines only work 50-60% of the time. Often the drones are carried 20km on foot into position which sucks as you know half the equipment on your back won't work.
How do they not work? Just fail in transmitting data completely? Do you have a link to learn more about this?
Cable breaks
Re: Drones that recharge directly on transmission lines
#104Re: Drones that recharge directly on transmission lines
#105Well, at the very least, we now have a pre-built charging network for drones. Something that would have taken decades to build manually
Re: Drones that recharge directly on transmission lines
#106This seems like a solution looking for a problem. If the power companies were satisfied about the safety issues of this idea, which are obviously many and severe, then they would also be satisfied with simply mounting a charging platform for the drone atop the tower or pole where the HV line runs, which cuts out a lot of the uncertainty regarding the drone's autonomous guidance.
Also, the whole idea triggers my reflexive skepticism about any technology that seeks to remove the last human from the system. Usually there are exponentially increasing costs to removing the next human, and at some point it's not worth it. People want (wanted) to make sealed, autonomous data centers maintained by robots and it just isn't worth it. Even in manufacturing where robotic automation is ubiquitous and advanced there are still tons of humans.
Re: Drones that recharge directly on transmission lines
#107Huh, 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.
The simplest might be for the drone company to act as an intermediary. They'd bill drone users for charging and have contracts with utilities. The drone company could do some authentication / DRM / etc. so that you'd basically have to jailbreak your drone to charge without paying.
Yes, I'm sure the markup would be large as a percentage, but for most customers the convenience would be worth it. Most of the customers are probably commercial and don't want to risk getting banned or sued.
Re: Drones that recharge directly on transmission lines
#108Re: Drones that recharge directly on transmission lines
#109If 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.
Yes, feels like perching via some insulated "feet" and only using energy for stabilisation (as opposed to flight) would allow the drone to get very cloe (and suck much more power) from the line.
Re: Drones that recharge directly on transmission lines
#110Earlier 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 actually an inverse first power law, assuming that the distance of the drone from the wire is much less than the length of the wire. The inverse square law applies only to a point source of electrical energy, to a sphere, or to an object whose largest dimension is much less than the distance to the drone.