Power Line Perching Drone

Pitch Aeronautics has built and demonstrated a drone for component installation on power lines, including the aircraft, control system, and a state estimation system. In this Phase I SBIR research, Pitch Aeronautics and Boise State University will adapt this system for autonomous perching, recharging, and surveillance from power lines. The team will interview representative Army and DoD customers to determine technical requirements and typical mission requirements. These requirements will be integrated into a preliminary design of the perching drone. This will include the adaptation of the Astria drone platform from installations to perching by redesigning the droneÆs forward payload arm to clamp to and unclamp from an aerial cable of varying diameters. The team will experimentally evaluate the Astria camera, distance sensor, and electromagnetic sensor system and assess the system error in the drone control model to determine if it can provide sufficient positional accuracy for autonomous perching on energized power lines in a GPS-denied environment. The team will leverage a previously developed dynamics and control model to extend the Astria droneÆs control system for transitioning from horizontal contact with a cable to a vertical passive perched position. The team will evaluate several recharging systems from distribution and transmission power lines, then select one for preliminary power electronics and mechanical design. The team will assess off-the-shelf multi-spectral sensors to meet the identified Army and DoD technical and mission requirements. In the phase I option period, Pitch Aeronautics will apply the control system developed in Phase I to perch to a power cable. This development will provide the necessary design and analysis to build and demonstrate autonomous perching in the Phase II SBIR research and sales to representative DoD customers in Phase III.