Project at a glance
Drones4Energy is 3,5 years, Grand Solutions Innovation Fund Denmark project that aims to build a collaborative, autonomous, and continuously operating drone system that will be offered to powerline operators to inspect the power grid accurately, frequently, and autonomously.
Key Features
Energy Harvesting
The project aims at building a light-weight energy harvester to tap energy from the powerline cables to charge the drones without modifying the power grid’s infrastructure.
Artificial Intelligence Algorithms
The project will improve the state-of-the-art machine-learning algorithms to optimize the inspection results thereby it is possible to only store the relevant inspection data on-board of the drone.
Swarm System
The project will reduce the inspection time and improve its accuracy by building a collaborative drone system to fly along the cables to inspect all of the sides of the cables at once.
Harsh environment operations
The project aims at building a resilient drone system that is capable to overcome the electromagnetic interferences of the high-voltage cables on the drone electrical components.
Facts
Project title: Drones4Energy Project number: 8057-00038A Starting date: 1 December, 2018 Duration in months: 36 (+6 month extension) Funding: Funded by Innovation Fund Denmark with a grant of DKK 14 million and a total budget of DKK 19 million (~3M €) Program: Grand Solutions Coordinator: SDU UAS Centre, University of Southern Denmark. Partners: University of Southern Denmark, Aarhus University, Fraunhofer, GeoPartner Inspection, Develco, Science Venture Denmark Project leader: Prof. Dr. Emad Samuel Malki Ebeid, SDU UAS, University of Southern Denmark.