NYPA looks to drones guided by power line electromagnetic fields

New York-based startup Manifold Robotics announced the culmination of a product development effort in collaboration with the New York Power Authority (NYPA), which developed new sensing technologies and software algorithms to enable Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) or drones to leverage the electromagnetic fields (EMF) emitted by power transmission lines for navigation.

The project launched in 2020 with partial funding from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).

UASs are becoming a useful tool for performing infrastructure inspections. However, flying UASs near and around transmission lines can be challenging. Remote pilots often find it difficult to visually judge the distance between the UAS and the transmission line conductors, NYPA said, and flying along transmission lines poses similar challenges, in addition to coping with regulatory constraints for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flight.

Manifold Robotics says by sensing the EMF emitted by transmission lines, UASs can detect the presence of lines and estimate their distance to them, hopefully enabling automated collision avoidance or line tracking.

The product development effort required the design and fabrication of electric and magnetic field sensors with ample sensitivity while also contending with the size and weight constraints of small UASs. Software algorithms were developed to analyze the EMF data in flight and issue commands to the UAS to either avoid collisions with the line or autonomously track along it.

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“The Power Authority sees great potential in technology that enables automated flights and can more safely navigate our critical transmission infrastructure during inspections,” said Alan Ettlinger, NYPA’s senior director of Research, Technology Development and Innovation. “Collaborating with Manifold Robotics will allow our transmission line inspection programs to benefit from the latest commercial drone developments while also building on our track record of innovation in this rapidly evolving clean energy landscape.”

More than 100 test flights were performed with the technology on NYPA’s transmission line infrastructure. As a final demonstration, the technology was deployed for an approximately one-mile-long flight along a 345-kV line.

Manifold Robotics and NYPA said the EMF sensing technology guided the UAS to maintain a 20-foot standoff distance from the line while flying parallel to it. In doing so, the UAS autonomously followed a change in the transmission line direction, as well as adjusted its altitude to account for varying conductor height due to line sag and terrain variation.

“This technology does not rely on GPS waypoints for flying along transmission lines, but instead directly estimates its distance from the line,” said Jeffrey Laut, CEO at Manifold Robotics. “This approach is expected to provide a compelling advantage for beyond visual line of sight flight along transmission lines for inspection purposes as it enables UASs to safely fly in close proximity to the lines where the risk of encountering other aircraft is insignificant — a concept known as obstruction shielding.”

Manifold Robotics was recently granted a BVLOS waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on the basis of the developed EMF technology, allowing the UASs to fly greater distances along NYPA’s transmission lines than normally permitted under Part 107 regulations, which govern commercial UAS use and requires visual observation of the UAS.

Funding for this project was provided by NYPA and NYSERDA through its Electric Power Transmission and Distribution High Performing Grid Program, which makes investments in research and development that accelerate the realization of an advanced, digitally enhanced, and dynamically managed electric grid.

In 2021, NYPA sought bids and evaluated vendors in the artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics space in an effort to help streamline the process of analyzing drone-captured images of its miles of powerlines. Buzz Solutions, an AI-powered software platform for data management, data processing, anomaly detections, and analytics for power line and grid infrastructure inspections, was selected in the open bidding process.

In November 2022, NYPA said that the AI technology is significantly improving its in-house drone inspection programme, allowing transmission lines to be more quickly and thoroughly evaluated and any potential issues that could lead to power failure to be identified earlier.

Originally published by Sean Wolfe on power-grid.com