Patent — available for licensing
Powerline Geolocation
A NASA invention available to explore as a licensing opportunity.
About this technology
Overview
The technology leverages the electrical conductors employed in power transmission for signal transmission for geolocation. Unmanned aerial vehicles have the capability to inspect high-voltage conductors and associated structures from points of view that are not available to ground-based or helicopter-based crews. In order to geolocate its position, such a vehicle relies on one or more navigation systems including: GPS, inertial measurement unit systems (IMUs), or image recognition. Geolocation accuracy via image recognition suffers from changes in lighting (e.g., time of day and weather variations) and from changes in the scene (e.g., foliage changes in spring vs. winter). Inertial systems suffer from positional drift which currently occurs on the order of minutes for compact systems. GPS suffers from multipath affects near metallic structures (which are ubiquitous in transmission line infrastructure), from satellite loss due to horizon blockage (the stadium effect), from electromagnetic interference on the radio band of GPS transmissions, and, most fundamentally, from loss of the GPS transmission by the orbital satellites. Powerline conductors are capable of transmitting signals which could be used for geolocation to aid in navigation.