Wireless charged drones for autonomous inspection critical infrastructure over large areas

Important results from the project

** Denna text är maskinöversatt ** As a whole, the purpose was to be able to present a working experimental platform for autonomous inspections and we have fulfilled this. We now take the lessons from the work further and develop new systems for this type of work. We are pleased to have achieved the milestones we had, ie; A drone that can fly and inspect overhead lines and then go down on a charging pad and charge its batteries completely inductively and autonomously.

Expected long term effects

** Denna text är maskinöversatt ** The Vinnova project has resulted in new insights into how this type of system can be configured and put into operation in our activities to replace manual inspections of Sweden´s overhead line network in a future scenario. WE are pleased to have succeeded in presenting an experimental platform that possesses the properties we had as objective to construct.

Approach and implementation

** Denna text är maskinöversatt ** The work was conducted in an agile project form with two-week sprints where different parts of the team worked in parallel with the development of the platform. To demonstrate the final platform, Åsbro course yard was rented, which is an educational institution for electric power technicians. There we could use non-live overhead lines to demonstrate our solution in a safe and realistic environment. Unfortunately, our vehicle crashed during these attempts and had to be repaired.