METHOD OF UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE AUTOPILOT OVER OVERHEAD POWER TRANSMISSION LINE Russian patent published in 2025 - IPC G01R31/08 

FIELD: measuring.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to electric power engineering and can be used for autopilot of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) following along route of overhead power transmission line (OTL) for the purpose of its diagnostics (location of defects of power transmission lines insulation, installation of phase wires and fittings, overhead power lines, etc.). Method of autopiloting an unmanned aerial vehicle following an overhead power line consists in measuring electric field strength at wing ends by capacitive transducers and automatic determination of flight altitude. For along-route control of the aircraft, a camera is installed on board the unmanned aerial vehicle and continuous photographing is performed. On image fragments root-mean-square brightness and root-mean-square deviation (MSD) of image vectors are calculated. It is assumed that average values of brightness of wires and, accordingly, image vectors have a maximum value in relation to average brightness of the whole image fragment, and MSD of brightness of these image vectors, on the contrary, is minimum. Based on processing image fragments (large set of vectors) directed from each pixel of the image in the direction of flight, overhead transmission line wires are identified, their average angle of deviation from the direction of the UAV is determined and a command is sent to control the aircraft to correct the direction of its flight in the plane of the surface of the earth.

EFFECT: increased reliability of unmanned aerial vehicle navigation in conditions of high ambient air humidity, as well as possibility to use UAVs with small wingspan.

1 cl, 5 dwg