Power Line Urban Sentry

This article first appeared in Aviation Week's DTI. Small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are effective battlefield surveillance platforms. But they suffer from limited battery power, which affects their range and their sensors' effectiveness, often making them expendable. A solution may lie in overhead power lines. A program by Defense Research Associates (DRA) and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) seeks to develop a small UAV that can land on a power line and recharge its battery by drawing energy from the cable.