Engineers from Denmark have developed a drone that, thanks to its cutting-edge features, can stay in the air almost indefinitely by drawing power from power lines without cables. This “vampire drone” can autonomously detect and cling to power lines and charge its batteries without human intervention.
Can drones use power lines to provide unlimited power?
Photo: PantherMedia / abriendomundo
Engineers from Denmark have designed a drone that can stay in the air almost indefinitely thanks to its advanced features. This “vampire drone” draws power from power lines without any cables by charging wirelessly.
The drone can use artificial intelligence to detect power lines
Engineers at the University of Southern Denmark have developed technology that allows the drone to fly almost indefinitely without having to land. The drone uses sensors and artificial intelligence to detect power lines and can cling to them to charge its batteries, similar to an electric vampire.
“The drones can essentially live on the network and operate completely autonomously for long periods of time without requiring human interaction,” the development team explained via email to fastcompany.com.
From manual inspection to independent power production
According to this report, the idea of charging drones using power lines arose in 2017 when Imad Obaid, a professor at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU), was researching drone applications and identified power line inspection as an area of interest. Obaid admitted that the previous inspection, which included helicopters and ground crews, was costly and ineffective. He saw drones as a natural alternative to this complex maintenance process. These drones can fly either remotely or autonomously to monitor lines.
However, there was a problem: drones have a limited battery life of a maximum of 40 minutes, with most industrial models losing power after about 30 minutes of use. This means that a human crew is constantly in the vicinity of the drone, which was not exactly the researchers' goal. Because: In order to achieve full autonomy, drones had to be able to easily recharge without human intervention. For this reason, Obaid thought of using power lines.
Inductive coupling is the solution
This made people wonder how to use a power line to charge the drone without damaging it. Drones cannot simply go to power lines and use their power because these lines are very high voltage. To adjust the electricity for the drone batteries (about 9V), custom inverters were needed.
Engineers choose to use inductive coupling. “Charging is done inductively and therefore depends only on current, not on power line voltage,” the researchers explain. This generates electricity in the drone's power supply, a metal coil system that acts like a wireless charger for your phone. This electricity then charges the drone's battery. Depending on the cable voltage, the 4.3kg drone must remain on the power line for between 30 minutes and six hours.
How does a vampire drone absorb energy?
When the drone senses that its 7,000 mAh battery is low, it switches to “search and capture” mode. She activates her camera and searches for the nearest power line. It flies under the cable and slowly rises. A special guide moves to make the connection.
Once the operator touches the cable, he points the drone upwards so that the handle is precisely aligned with the power line cable. As it flies upward, the handle closes around the high-voltage cable. After contact is made, the magnetic control circuit is activated to safely close the handle. The vampire drone then starts absorbing energy.
Further security measures required
In one test, the drone completed five recharges autonomously, allowing it to fly continuously for two hours – a significant advance over the usual 30 minutes. In theory, a drone can fly indefinitely.
“It will be difficult to make the system weatherproof and resistant to very high voltage,” said the team behind the drone's development. “Necessary measures must also be taken to avoid disruption and hijacking. Therefore, the next steps will involve a lot of engineering work and testing to verify the functionality and security of the system.
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