The prototype in the linked video was first tested back in 2023, and since then a few startups have set their sights on the technology (e.g. Nomadic Drones and Voltair). When working on the linked prototype we ran into some fundamental issues. Firstly, the recharging will only work with AC lines, and there's currently a lot of hype around UHVDC lines which are not compatible. Secondly, the AC lines must carry substantial current (ideally thousands of amps) for the recharging to not take forever. You can of course carry a much larger transformer on the drone to compensate, but this will in turn severely limit your flight time (ours was 1kg on a drone of 4.5kg and we could charge with 50W from 300A line current). You also have to account for significant daily fluctuations in the line current. It'll be interesting to see how the tech evolves, and I'll definitely be following these startups closely.
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nhma
In their report (https://gitlab.com/hybrid-drone/paper) the authors mention that they implemented one controller for flying and another for diving. The transition seems to be initiated manually, but they propose a few ways of automatic detection and transition.
As far as I can tell from their report (https://gitlab.com/hybrid-drone/paper), the authors did not consider underwater RF transmissions in their prototype design and simply use standard COTS components typically used for DIY UAVs.
MmWave radar is commonly used for this purpose on both commercial and research UAVs, see e.g.: https://youtu.be/MORFX3CFygk
A more relevant metric than admins/professor would be admin staff/scientific staff. Given that a research group under a professor will probably contain numerous associate professors, assistant professors, postdocs, PhDs, and research assistants who all generate some admin workload, 3 admins per professor does not sound outlandish.
This is part of our research into drones for power line maintenance that we conduct at the University of Southern Denmark. You may have seen our previous work on drones that can recharge directly from power lines (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-uekD6VTIQ), and this work is a direct extension of that.
Powerline 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/
The gripper has several modes. There's a mode for charging the battery and providing holding force given AC powerline current, a mode for just holding the drone without charging given AC powerline current (if battery is full), and another mode where a small current (about 1W power) is taken from the battery and used to provide holding force in the case where there is no powerline current. Additionally, the gripper can be designed to fail open or fail closed, whichever is deemed appriate for the end-user.
Earlier post (also no discussion): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39679772
The voltage of the powerline is not relevant since the charging principle is based on inductive coupling. So as long as you have a current above ~100A the harvester should work, irrespective of voltage. And high currents equal higher charging power.
To optimize charging time, the drone could perhaps analyze the magnetic fields to determine which line has the highest current to optimize charging time. But I would assume some sort of balancing is happening between the lines and phases.
The powerline used is a custom mockup with just 5V AC. But we have also landed on real powerlines. I think there's a video in the channel of the OP video.
These are our newest results from our self-recharging drone system, to be presented at ICRA later this year.
You can watch a video demonstration here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-uekD6VTIQ
If you want to watch some of the mishaps and some of our other work, there's this condensed, slightly cheesy video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5FFx8VXjGw
And if you happen to be in Rimini for the European Robotics Forum this week you can come by our booth for a chat and have a look at our drone in the flesh.
TL;DW: A video of a drone recharging itself from a power line.
My research group works on aerial robots and we recently demonstrated sustained autonomous operations by inductively recharging from overhead power lines. A radar-based perception system feeds into an MPC-based trajectory controller which steers the drone towards the target power line. As it approaches, a passive gripping mechanism grasps the cable. Holding force and energy harvesting is achieved by manipulating the current in the split core transformer embedded in the gripper.
For now, the prototype system is only being tested on high-current low-voltage (5V 300A) power lines and the ratio between flight time and charging time is not yet great.
We are working on a pre-print, but in the meantime you can find our previous work here https://portal.findresearcher.sdu.dk/en/persons/esme/publica... and related videos on our YouTube channel.
TL;DW: A video of a drone recharging itself from a power line.
My research group works on aerial robots and we recently demonstrated sustained autonomous operations by inductively recharging from overhead power lines. A radar-based perception system feeds into an MPC-based trajectory controller which steers the drone towards the target power line. As it approaches, a passive gripping mechanism grasps the cable. Holding force and energy harvesting is achieved by manipulating the current in the split core transformer embedded in the gripper.
For now, the prototype system is only being tested on high-current low-voltage power lines and the ratio between flight time and charging time is not yet great.
We are working on a pre-print, but in the meantime you can find our previous work here https://portal.findresearcher.sdu.dk/en/persons/esme/publica... and related videos on our YouTube channel.
Besides obvious issues such as minor gusts of wind, flight time, and spinning knives around eye level, this is a pretty novel idea. The amount of uses people have found for drones is impressive, e.g. mapping, spray painting, fruit picking, seed planting, transportation, exploration of Mars, environmental surveillance, ship parking, antenna testing, metal detection, mine sweeping, wind turbine installation, and I guess now also autonomous umbrella.
The world in which the story is set is mostly devoid of living animals. Consequently, owning an animal has become a symbol of wealth and status. Naturally, most individuals cannot afford such a luxury, and a whole industry of robotic animals has emerged to cater to the less wealthy segment who want to pretend to own an animal. The protagonist of the story even has a feud with his neighbour about the authenticity of their respective faux animals.
At some point, the protagonist comes in contact with a number of humanoid robots (androids). The theme of the book is very much about the blurry lines of what makes a living thing be alive (is the protagonist's own ultra-controlled life even called living?). So the title could be interpreted as "Do artificial humans have the same aspirations as us?", as in what's the difference between them and us.
Having recently been to several large (non-tier 1) cities in China, every bus, taxi, and scooter is already electric with about half of personal cars seemingly electrified too. The number of brands and diversity between them is mind boggling, and every single time I rode in one I was surprised by how well built they felt.
Can someone ELI5 why this is seemingly only possible in China?
The EU could take a page out of Denmark's climate playbook to easily meet emissions targets.
A large contributor of projected Danish emissions has been low-lying wetlands converted to farmland via draining. Calculations predicted that reflooding these areas could saves millions of tons of emissions, so this became a hot political topic. However, the Danish climate minister recently announced that he had wonderful climate-related news to share; the emissions from these areas were significantly less than first anticipated! And with these magical news, Denmark's 2025 emissions goals have now been met. However, what the minister failed to mention was the fact that the only reason these lands emit less than anticipated is because they have already emitted most of the greenhouse gasses stored in them, just at a much faster rate than initially predicted.