A Novel Charging Station on Overhead Power Lines for Autonomous Unmanned Drones
Source abstract
Abstract
Innovative drone-based technologies provide novel techniques to guarantee the safety and quality of power supply and to perform these tasks more efficiently. Electric multirotor drones, which are at the forefront of technology, face significant flight time limitations due to battery capacity and weight constraints that limit their autonomous operation. This paper presents a novel drone charging station that harvests energy from the magnetic field present in power lines to charge the drone’s battery. This approach relies on a charging station that is easy to install by the drone on an overhead AC power line without modifying the electrical infrastructure. This paper analyses the inductive coupling between the energy harvester and the power line, electrical protection, the power electronics required for maximum power point tracking and the mechanical design of the charging station. A drone that perches on a cable, an end effector for installation procedures and the charging maneuver are described, along with discussion of the robotic and electrical tests performed in a relevant environment. Finally, a lightweight drone charging station capable of harvesting 145 W of power from a 600 A line current is reported.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline
Research context
OpenAlex topics: Energy Harvesting in Wireless Networks · Power Line Inspection Robots · Underwater Vehicles and Communication Systems
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
CIRCE Foundation, Parque Empresarial Dinamiza, Avenida Ranillas Edificio 3D, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain
CATEC Advanced Center for Aerospace Technologies, Parque Tecnológico y Aeronáutico de Andalucía, C/ Wilbur y Orville Wright 19, 41309 La Rinconada, Spain
Instituto Universitario de Investigación Mixto CIRCE, Universidad de Zaragoza-Fundación CIRCE, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain
Funding
European Commission
References (43)
Show source-provided references
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