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Author Topic: High Voltage Power Lines: Drone Super Highways  (Read 9791 times)

Nink

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High Voltage Power Lines: Drone Super Highways
« on: March 30, 2016, 10:43:19 PM »
I posted on another forum (DJI) about using induction from powerlines to provide power to drones and charge them. 
http://forum.dji.com/thread-47239-1-1.html

I had various responses from it just wouldn't work to power lines are DC not AC ??, only harvest enough power for a fluorescent lamp etc.  So I figured I would move the idea over here to get some feedback from people who actually understand wireless transfer of power and how induction works. 

Essentially my idea is a drone that has a copper coil that acts as an induction antenna on the bottom of the drone. The drone flies along the high voltage power lines and harvests power and charges the battery as it goes.  A commercial drone running on battery only gets from 20m to an hour or so of power so using this idea if drone wanted to travel from New York to Detroit the drone flies over the HV lines and harvests power and charges it's batteries.  It may land on a platform on the power lines for a longer stationary charge before it flies off and leaves the power lines.   I am thinking it may need to be enhanced by using some clip on induction coils that attach to the power lines as well that collect and just do a quick transfer using magnetic induction or microwaves from Capacity to Capacitor as this could build up over time charge on board caps and then transfer to drone when it gets a magnetic induction lock as it flies over top of it. 





fritznien

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Re: High Voltage Power Lines: Drone Super Highways
« Reply #1 on: March 31, 2016, 11:49:25 PM »
what is the lifetime range for the drone?
why would i want to send it across the country?

lumen

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Re: High Voltage Power Lines: Drone Super Highways
« Reply #2 on: April 01, 2016, 07:16:17 AM »
what is the lifetime range for the drone?
why would i want to send it across the country?

To pick up your weed?

Pirate88179

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Re: High Voltage Power Lines: Drone Super Highways
« Reply #3 on: April 01, 2016, 04:49:05 PM »
I posted on another forum (DJI) about using induction from powerlines to provide power to drones and charge them. 
http://forum.dji.com/thread-47239-1-1.html

I had various responses from it just wouldn't work to power lines are DC not AC ??, only harvest enough power for a fluorescent lamp etc.  So I figured I would move the idea over here to get some feedback from people who actually understand wireless transfer of power and how induction works. 

Essentially my idea is a drone that has a copper coil that acts as an induction antenna on the bottom of the drone. The drone flies along the high voltage power lines and harvests power and charges the battery as it goes.  A commercial drone running on battery only gets from 20m to an hour or so of power so using this idea if drone wanted to travel from New York to Detroit the drone flies over the HV lines and harvests power and charges it's batteries.  It may land on a platform on the power lines for a longer stationary charge before it flies off and leaves the power lines.   I am thinking it may need to be enhanced by using some clip on induction coils that attach to the power lines as well that collect and just do a quick transfer using magnetic induction or microwaves from Capacity to Capacitor as this could build up over time charge on board caps and then transfer to drone when it gets a magnetic induction lock as it flies over top of it.

 
Intersting and creative idea...however since I just looked up how many volts are usually in those power lines (765,000 volts +) it makes me think that the magnetic field around them would wipe out any electronics on your drone if it got anywhere near them.
 
Maybe there is a sweet spot somewhere like 100 feet or 500 feet away where your idea might work?  I don't know.
 
Bill

Nink

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Re: High Voltage Power Lines: Drone Super Highways
« Reply #4 on: April 01, 2016, 05:23:19 PM »
what is the lifetime range for the drone?
why would i want to send it across the country?
Drone is a circuit board some DC motors and a battery. Battery is usually first part to go they use LIPO's with 50 to 100 hours of flight time depending on how well you take care of it.
Commercial Drones can be made fully redundant example lose one rotor continue to fly, redundant controllers, redundant batteries etc

Urgent deliveries is a simple use case, but drones can provide a range of functions from inspection drones inspecting the power lines they traverse to security patrolling an area. Once technology is pervasive you would be amazed at the number of use cases people will come up with. 

Nink

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Re: High Voltage Power Lines: Drone Super Highways
« Reply #5 on: April 01, 2016, 05:26:42 PM »
Maybe there is a sweet spot somewhere like 100 feet or 500 feet away where your idea might work?
Bill

Good idea Bill I guess you could come up with a simple device to measure the voltage and drone gets as close as required.  A bit like holding your hands in front of a fire, you move them as close as you need to get warm but not to close so you get burnt.

Pirate88179

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Re: High Voltage Power Lines: Drone Super Highways
« Reply #6 on: April 01, 2016, 08:25:57 PM »
Good idea Bill I guess you could come up with a simple device to measure the voltage and drone gets as close as required.  A bit like holding your hands in front of a fire, you move them as close as you need to get warm but not to close so you get burnt.

Exactly.
 
Bill
 
PS  I had no idea those power lines carried that high of a voltage so, I learned something new.

lumen

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Re: High Voltage Power Lines: Drone Super Highways
« Reply #7 on: April 01, 2016, 08:58:18 PM »
I would think that the power consumption of a drone is more than you could acquire while in flight.
Because of the low 50-60HZ frequency any resonate coupling with the required current may be to heavy.

Using a current clamp around the cable (I think about 1" -3" dia.) could provide a higher current connection while hanging from the wire.
The advantage would be that you could use almost any transmission line even lower 4000v residential.


It might be easier to just hang out a bit around the radio towers with a light weight resonate coil to charge while flying.

Nink

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Re: High Voltage Power Lines: Drone Super Highways
« Reply #8 on: April 02, 2016, 04:57:59 AM »
I would think that the power consumption of a drone is more than you could acquire while in flight.
Because of the low 50-60HZ frequency any resonate coupling with the required current may be to heavy.

Using a current clamp around the cable (I think about 1" -3" dia.) could provide a higher current connection while hanging from the wire.
The advantage would be that you could use almost any transmission line even lower 4000v residential.


It might be easier to just hang out a bit around the radio towers with a light weight resonate coil to charge while flying.

I gave that a bit of thought and I had considered the concept of having magnetic induction devices clamped onto the lines with super capacitors, They would charge over time in line with the frequency of the AC wavelength. They would then retransmit that power through magnetic coupling induction or microwave transmitters to the drones as they past by.  This would obviously require additional infrastructure and infrastructure costs money. 

What if the drones velocity was timed with the AC wavelength so it moves at speed aligned with optimum times for frequency reversal.   So as the drone moves in one direction it always intersects the pulse of the AC current in the opposite direct, or the reverse in the same direction.

===AC Sine Wave + => ===AC Sine Wave - => ===AC Sine Wave + => ===AC Sine Wave - => ===AC Sine Wave + => ===AC Sine Wave - =>
<= Drone Fight path N= <= Drone Fight path=S <= Drone Fight path=N  <= Drone Fight path=S <= Drone Fight path=N   <= Drone Fight path=S