Inductive power harvesting for a touchless transmission line inspection system

Transmission line inspection becomes increasingly more important as power system infrastructure ages because proactively identifying line maintenance needs is crucial for minimizing outages. Utilizing robots to conduct such inspections is both safer for humans and less costly in terms of labor, but finding an appropriate on-line robot design presents its own set of challenges. This paper proposes a touch-free transmission line inspection system in which an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) conducts all inspection activities and, while doing so, charges from the line via inductive power transmission. Two coil designs are presented and tested for this charging application - one with an air core and one with a line-enclosing core clamp. Finally, the benefits and challenges associated with each design are discussed, along with the general practicality of inductive charging via transmission lines for UAV applications.