6 ms·
Pretty cool, though my take is that if it's recharging just from induction it's essentially stealing the electricity... I suppose if the owners of the lines wan
by blacksmith_tb 3y ago
Pretty cool, though my take is that if it's recharging just from induction it's essentially stealing the electricity... I suppose if the owners of the lines want to have autonomous drones monitor their status, that's not stealing, but if you wanted to release some little flying vampire drones of your own which could run indefinitely that way, someone might be less amused.
- declan_roberts 3y agoI was trying to figure out exactly how it charges with just 1 pole. It must be induction in that case, right?
- dist-epoch 3y agoIt could have a small spool of wire to drop to the ground to make contact. This would allow the drone to rest on the wire while charging.
- bdamm 3y agoThis would vaporize the drone, the wire, and anyone or anything nearby, sending flaming battery and electronics shrapnel in many directions. High tension does not mess around.
- non-chalad 3y agoSee what happens to a branch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4ph-h7l_aM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4ph-h7l_aM
- jcims 3y agoOr a conductor hauled up by fishing line https://youtu.be/mqRT7J86rco?si=Za9B-dA-VO-Fl5Z8 https://youtu.be/mqRT7J86rco?si=Za9B-dA-VO-Fl5Z8
- taneq 3y agoNot if you put a large enough resistor in the line. It might be enough just to extend a spike to bleed off charge, though.
- bdamm 3y agoThere's nothing gentle about 38kV. You're not going to lower down a line and bleed off some charge. Once there's a viable path to ground, current will flow all over whatever is making that path, including the very air around it. The entire drone, wire, and the air it is inside of will turn into vaporized plasma as if hit by a bolt of lightning. And 38kV is low voltage in the high-tension world. Creating current flows from a field is what induction is, so if you're imagining that you could just generate electricity from a field, well, that's what they're already doing. It doesn't take lowering a probe. You can just use an inductor.
- idiotsecant 3y agoThat is exactly opposite of what would keep the drone safe. In a power transmission network the earth is a conductive path. Touching a phase and touching earth allows the grid to push as much power through you as your impedance and grpund contact will allow.
- duskwuff 3y agoThat, and long spools of loose wire and spinning propellers are not a good combination.
- quickthrowman 3y agoThe link below is a video showing the explosion that would occur if someone attempted what you are describing. https://youtu.be/LCRfYIwFbxQ https://youtu.be/LCRfYIwFbxQ
- throwaway14356 3y agoIf it can make contact with the ground it should be able to charge from the static field. https://makezine.com/article/craft/1000-fluorescent-lights-p/ https://makezine.com/article/craft/1000-fluorescent-lights-p...
- pkage 3y agoFrom the video description: > A passively actuated gripping mechanism grasps the powerline cable during landing after which a control circuit regulates the magnetic field inside a split-core current transformer to provide sufficient holding force as well as battery recharging.
- nealabq 3y agoWhen the grippers close they probably close the loops of a coil that wraps around the wire. So it's harvesting the ever changing magnetic field that arises from AC current, independent of voltage. You can still get some power from coils that aren't wrapped around the wire but are still parallel. I think that's how wireless phone chargers work. You can also take power using a capacitor instead of an inductor, from the changing voltage (not current) in an AC line. Like when you hold a florescent tube vertical under a hi-power line, and it lights up.
- phanimahesh 3y agoThat is induction though. Acapacitor alone can not extract energy from a ac line. Inductance is what allows energy transfer here.
- delichon 3y agoThis could become a major power draw over decades. It's probably time to figure out a protocol. E.g. a cheap light small low power meter on the drone that can post the transaction to the electric company while in flight, signals to designate power lines as in or out of the system and their current price, etc. Solar roof owners could compete with the utilities. There are unicorns hiding in this forest. The vampires will be the charging drones that aren't associated with a transaction. So it's about as enforceable as a requirement that drones have accurate identifier transponders.
- deadbabe 3y agoWho cares? If they don’t want their power drawn they need to be burying their powerlines anyway.
- j-bos 3y agoAlternatively Who cares? If they don’t want their oil siphoned they need to be burying their pipelines anyway. Most would agree that unauthorized draws from common infrastructure resulting in loss is theft.
- 1minusp 3y agoCost of undergrounding power lines is large. Especially over the distribution network (in that there is a lot more of it over space)
- tarikjn 3y agoThere probably are exemptions for emergency or defense applications.
- wglb 3y agoIf that can be measured, I would be pretty surprised. I would project that the drain from all possible drone charging is orders of magnitude less than the e.g. coronal loss or the static radiation that blasts my ham radio. Any legal action would need to be able to document that loss, one would think.
- Terr_ 3y agoBut you agree the loss exists, right? It's simply difficult to detect from some aggregate noisy flow at a centralized location, because the system was never designed to make that easily measurable. The amount could be estimated by looking at how much flying the drones do between charges, or by suing for access to charging/position telemetry of the units.
- _visgean 3y agoright now the loss does not exist. Its a cool experiment. If this was a big thing the drone fleet operators would simply get some kind of legal agreement with the transmission operator. But overall we are talking about really small amounts of energy.
- Terr_ 3y ago> we are talking about really small amounts of energy Napkin-math time: I see 4 motors, searching the model-number suggests each has a max draw of ~380 watts, so let's assume it averages 1000 watts in operation, for 6 hours a day, with a local cost of electricity at $0.20 per kilowatt-hour, and this continues for one month. 1000*8/1000*$0.20*30 = $36 per month per drone. That's not give-a-penny-take-a-penny territory.
- SECProto 3y agoThat's bad napkin math. Per the video, it is charging at 50W. At worst, it would be charging 24hr/day, so 50Wx24h is 1.2kWh per day. Using your 20¢ rate, that's $0.24 per day or 7.20/month. That's the upper bound, assuming it only charges and does no work.
- dkjaudyeqooe 3y agoIt's odd that people in the comments assume use without permission and stealing. You wouldn't attempt any of this without permission, regulatory approval and insurance, unless you wanted to be sued, prosecuted and go broke if something went wrong. How do people think the real world operates exactly?
- lolc 3y agoOh but the scenario where the drone does it without permission is just way more entertaining.
- dkjaudyeqooe 3y agoThree-quarters of a megavolt of electricity plus drones does seem like a lively mix.
- rtkwe 3y agoThere's no current though, the same way birds can sit safely on lines all day long.
- dclowd9901 3y agoThere is definitely current or there would be no wattage.
- pineaux 3y agoI dont know. There is definitely a flow of energy between the power line and the drone. But there is no closed circuit between them so there is no current flowing. I imagine there is a (slightly, almost not measureable) raised current in the powerline due to a lower resistance due to the parasitic voltage drop and phase shifting cause by the inductive load. So technically no current between the drone and the powerline. Although there is energy transfer. But there are probably lots of people here that understand the laws of electromagnetism a lot better than me.
- cryptonector 3y agoArmed forces don't care. Get it? The likeliest user of this technology will be armed forces.
- paulhart 3y agoMore likely it’ll be utility companies that want to do remote and autonomous inspection of the transmission network. It’s already a big business, but if you can run the drone the entire length of the line without relocating the base as frequently, or have no base at all and transmit data over 5G? Big wins.
- Animats 3y agoRight. Drones for power line inspection are common. Far easier than inspections involving bucket trucks, helicopters, or even people on the ground with binoculars. This will simplify that process. Especially for lines through rugged country, where following the line is difficult. Start the drone where the power line crosses a road, and then drive to another road crossing for pickup. Warning lights for aircraft which clamp onto power lines have been available for many years.[1] [1] https://clampco.it/obstruction-light-low-intensity-type-b-segs32ptl/ https://clampco.it/obstruction-light-low-intensity-type-b-se...
- nhma 3y agoPowerline inspection and maintenance are the primary use cases for this technology. And at least this particular system is in the early spinout process via https://www.ongrid.tech/ https://www.ongrid.tech/
- etrautmann 3y agoThe biggest use case for this would be inspecting the powerlines, so presumably not stealing in that case.
- cyanydeez 3y agoSecond is spy drones.
- causality0 3y agoI don't think you know how infinitesimal the amount of power would be. Assuming a Mavic Mini traveling at its maximum speed of 29 miles per hour, it could cross the continental united states in 99 hours for 36 cents worth of electricity.
- snypher 3y ago~2kwh of electricity is around 160 aH at 12V, surely the Mini is more than 20W power at top speed?
- 05 3y agoYeah, it’s easier to use lab test data from Mavic Mini 3 specs: 51 minutes flight time at 21kph [0]. The battery capacity is 28.4Wh [1]. So, 18.4/(21*51/60) = 1.6 Wh/km. Assuming US is 2800 miles (4500 km) wide, we get 7.2 kWh of energy under ideal conditions, without accounting for charging efficiency and the impact of the charging system weight on flight time. Edit: 21kph is the optimal speed for max flight time but not for the best energy efficiency per km. Most efficient speed is somewhere between that and the top speed. But this is the right order of magnitude at least. [0] https://mavicpilots.com/threads/mini-3-51-minute-flight-time.141293/ https://mavicpilots.com/threads/mini-3-51-minute-flight-time... [1] https://forum.dji.com/thread-291222-1-1.html https://forum.dji.com/thread-291222-1-1.html