Flame-throwing drone zaps debris off power lines
20 Feb 2017
A power company in China has created a drone that zaps rubbish off power lines using a fire throwing drone.
The drone in use is a DJIS1000+ model costs £1,500 alone without the addition of a fire stick.
The drone which carries 11 Kg is ground-controlled using a £440-Futaba 14SG 14-channel radio controller.
Although rubbish on wires had reportedly caused power outages, such incidents had not been reported in Xiangyang where the drone had been deployed.
Similar but more sophisticated methods had been used in the US for different purposes.
A fire-starting drone was created by Nebraska-Lincoln University to ignite 'control fires' which cleared 25 acres of grass for the Homestead National Monument of America in Nebraska.
A video of the Chinese flame throwing drone showed the eight-bladed drone flying to the line and blasting a huge plume of fire at the trash.
While this could damage the very power lines it was trying to preserve, the method also minimised the risk of human injury.
The drones could also take care of trash in areas where it would not be possible to send a human.
This was not the first time drones had been used by power companies. According to a 2015 report in the Wall Street Journal utility companies in Atlanta, Chicago, and San Diego received permission to use drones to inspect infrastructure and check for gas leaks.