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Drones that recharge directly on transmission lines

ycombinator.com

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Re: Drones that recharge directly on transmission lines

#81

Post by pests »

chrneu wrote: post #48
pix128 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it'll lead the US burying their power lines

lol never gonna happen. I live in the PNW of the US where many fires have been started by transformers exploding or whatnot. Basically every community that has a fire as a result of transmission lines rebuilds them above ground/on poles. Just last month I was going through Detroit, Oregon and their 2-3 year old power lines were all down because of the wind storm. Detroit had a transformer explode a few years ago and…

Where I stay in Florida they have been burying all the lines after the last few hurricanes, thankfully.

Re: Drones that recharge directly on transmission lines

#83

Post by jandrewrogers »

themafia wrote: post #19

> 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. "Bet…

Why would humans be reviewing footage?

I've worked on similar systems for oil & gas that combined hyperspectral imaging and LIDAR. The analysis of data collected by drones was fully automated. It was at least as effective as humans at detecting anomalies (something which was thoroughly verified prior to adoption).

The more thorough coverage, potential issues being detected much earlier, and increased automation greatly reduced the total manpower required. Humans only came into the picture when the drones found a problem that needed mitigation. Humans have long been the bottleneck for finding operational risks and issues before they turn into a headline. The more humans you can remove from that loop the bigger the win.

This was years ago, the tech has only improved.

Re: Drones that recharge directly on transmission lines

#84

Post by bmitch3020 »

DrewADesign wrote: post #70
bmitch3020 wrote: post #62

I'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!

A jammed drone that's perched on a power line wouldn't fall out of the sky, and doesn't need to transmit 24x7, only when it detects some activity. The lack of a signal from it would itself be a signal of where the next attack is coming from. Anti-jamming weapons (missiles and autonomous drones) would also be useful, that lock on to any signal jamming sources and deliver the munitions directly to the target that's advertising itself.

Re: Drones that recharge directly on transmission lines

#85

Post by [deleted] »

KaiserPro wrote: post #74
chrneu wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iirc efficiency loss in wireless energy transmission is exponential? someone correct me. But basically after just a few mm the losses are so great that the amount of electricity needed becomes ridiculously wasteful. to power a running drone at more than a few inches would be just...a lot.

Inverse square, so each time the distance doubles the power density drops by a factor of four.

[deleted]

Re: Drones that recharge directly on transmission lines

#86

Post by KaiserPro »

littlestymaar wrote: post #71

Can anyone more knowledgeable explain how this works? Is it harvesting energy from the magnetic field (via induction), or does it extracts its energy from the electric field instead? And does the drone just happen to land on the power line for saving energy while doing so, or is the contact necessary somehow?

I would guess that its just a coil thats near the cable. however I can't imagine its actually that much power, as the field isn't that strong.

_but_ at 33kv, you start to get corona discharge, which gives you a potential difference, so that might be the mechanism they get power.

(thats a wild guess. )

Edit I did some more digging, induction appears to be magnetic induction, long cables do produce a magnetic field, but not that much (unless you put it in a coil)

Capacitive coupling is much more effective at high voltage.

Re: Drones that recharge directly on transmission lines

#87

Post by mycall »

DrewADesign wrote: post #70
bmitch3020 wrote: post #62

I'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!

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.

Re: Drones that recharge directly on transmission lines

#88

Post by bmitch3020 »

KaiserPro wrote: post #72
bmitch3020 wrote: post #62

I'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.

as soon as it sends RF it'll be located and destroyed. There has been lots of work to make fibre connected drones, so that they can't be located as easily (also the pilot)

There's also powerline communication that these drones could use, relaying a signal to a second drone perched back in friendly territory. And if the military is going around blowing up all of their power transmission lines, that's also going to hurt them.

Re: Drones that recharge directly on transmission lines

#90

Post by KaiserPro »

ck2 wrote: post #7

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

https://collidecolludecollaborate.wordpress.com/2016/01/12/f...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00l1slw < although its not available at the moment

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