Drones that charge via wires might not be the best idea

Battery life has long been a key limiting factor in usage. While some commercial models can stay airborne for 45 minutes or more on a single charge, being able to keep a drone in the air for longer would be helpful for many uses. Researchers at the University of Southern Denmark have been working on this problem for years, developing drones that can be charged directly from power lines.

This time, scientists installed a clamping system on the Tarot 650 Sport drone and customized its electric quadcopter propulsion system, autonomous driving module and other components. When the drone’s system detects that the battery is low, the device uses its camera and millimeter-wave radar systems to find the nearest power line. notes.

The drone then flies toward the power line from below, using a pair of inward-angled arms to guide the cable into the clamp. Inductive chargers draw current from the power line. After the battery is fully charged, the clamp opens and the drone continues flying.

Initially, the idea was to use this charging system with drones that inspect electrical wires. Researchers have developed a self-charging drone that can recharge its battery via a power cord in 2022. This time, they improved the scraping system and demonstrated real-world use cases for the technology.

At next month’s IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, the team describes the project as “to the best of our knowledge, a world-first system capable of sustaining operation across multiple checks/recharges” in the real outdoors. In the environment, the bicycle is powered by harvesting energy from wires. ” In arguably the most successful test, the drone stayed in the air for more than two hours, performing five wire inspections and recharging.

Drones are already used to monitor and inspect power lines. They are particularly useful in remote areas, such as mountaintops, where manually inspecting power lines is a difficult task. Still, it’s hard not to feel a little uneasy about the drone pinching the wires. If anything goes wrong and the drone ends up damaging power lines, the entire area could be without power. Drone charging pads already exist and may be a safer option, but they require additional infrastructure space.