Grant: Alliance Grants
Université de Sherbrooke
$226,000.00
High performance and autonomous UAV for interactions with energized high voltage transmission lines
FY 2021-22
Summary
DroneVolt Canada has recently launched a new drone product. This drone, the LineDrone, developed by Hydro-Québec, can land on high-voltage transmission lines to carry out various high-value direct contact non-destructive inspections without interruption of service. This drone is currently piloted manually, as several sensors are affected by the strong electromagnetic field. This poses a number of challenges in tight spaces near expensive/critical equipment. Manual operations force the pilot to stay immediately below the drone for landing alignment and obstacle avoidance. This complicates the deployment of the drone, lengthens operations and prevents its use in particularly useful situations (e.g., over rivers). Finally, due to its particular configuration, this drone can hardly operate in wind conditions above 20 km/h. All these constraints make for stressful or too often impossible operations, even for experienced pilots.The overall objective of this project is therefore to allow a drone to navigate and land autonomously on energized power lines in a wide range of environmental conditions. These capabilities would allow DroneVolt to offer utility companies a unique product which, while being easy to use and deploy, would allow them to safely perform valuable inspections. As part of this project, DroneVolt, Hydro-Québec and the Université de Sherbrooke (4 prof., 2 RA, 1 postdoc and 9 grad. students) will pool their respective expertise in dronautics, high-voltage power lines and robotics to improve the performance of this drone while developing the technologies necessary for autonomous operations around high-voltage transmission lines.This project represents a unique opportunity for DroneVolt and Hydro-Québec to respond to a pressing need. As in most countries, the electricity networks are aging rapidly. The associated restoration programs are complex and expensive, while planning for these operations is made difficult by the lack of quality data. This drone can sense directly the remaining useful life of energized conductors for better asset management, which lead to substantial savings and reduction of service interruptions.
Program
Alliance Grants
Recipient
Location
Quebec, Canada
Recipient Type
Academia
Type
Grant
Source
NSERC's Awards Data
As published
Application id
556180-2020
Name nom
Lussier Desbiens, Alexis
Department département
Génie mécanique
Organization id
68
Institution établissement
Université de Sherbrooke
Province en
Québec
Province fr
Québec
Country en
CANADA
Country fr
CANADA
Fiscal year exercice financier
2021
Competition year année de concours
2020
Award amount
226000
Program id
ALLRP
Program name en
Alliance Grants
Program name fr
Subventions Alliance
Group en
Research partnerships programs
Group fr
Programmes de partenariat
Committee code
96
Committee name en
RPP Internal Decision Cttee
Committee name fr
Cté de décision interne - PPR
Area of application code
703
Area of application group en
Transportation systems and services
Area of application group fr
Services et systèmes de transport
Area of application en
Aerospace
Area of application fr
Aérospatial
Research subject code
2601
Research subject group en
Robotics
Research subject group fr
Robotique
Research subject en
Robotic control
Research subject fr
Systèmes de commande
Installment
inst:2
Partie
1
Nb partie
3
Application title
High performance and autonomous UAV for interactions with energized high voltage transmission lines
Keyword
NSERC
Application summary
DroneVolt Canada has recently launched a new drone product. This drone, the LineDrone, developed by Hydro-Québec, can land on high-voltage transmission lines to carry out various high-value direct contact non-destructive inspections without interruption of service. This drone is currently piloted manually, as several sensors are affected by the strong electromagnetic field. This poses a number of challenges in tight spaces near expensive/critical equipment. Manual operations force the pilot to stay immediately below the drone for landing alignment and obstacle avoidance. This complicates the deployment of the drone, lengthens operations and prevents its use in particularly useful situations (e.g., over rivers). Finally, due to its particular configuration, this drone can hardly operate in wind conditions above 20 km/h. All these constraints make for stressful or too often impossible operations, even for experienced pilots.The overall objective of this project is therefore to allow a drone to navigate and land autonomously on energized power lines in a wide range of environmental conditions. These capabilities would allow DroneVolt to offer utility companies a unique product which, while being easy to use and deploy, would allow them to safely perform valuable inspections. As part of this project, DroneVolt, Hydro-Québec and the Université de Sherbrooke (4 prof., 2 RA, 1 postdoc and 9 grad. students) will pool their respective expertise in dronautics, high-voltage power lines and robotics to improve the performance of this drone while developing the technologies necessary for autonomous operations around high-voltage transmission lines.This project represents a unique opportunity for DroneVolt and Hydro-Québec to respond to a pressing need. As in most countries, the electricity networks are aging rapidly. The associated restoration programs are complex and expensive, while planning for these operations is made difficult by the lack of quality data. This drone can sense directly the remaining useful life of energized conductors for better asset management, which lead to substantial savings and reduction of service interruptions.
