RoboGuy
12-15-2007, 04:14 PM
According to a miltary.comstory DARPA's "Power Line Urban Sentry" (PLUS) program isdeveloping small electric UAVs that rely on the public power grid fornavigation and power. When their batteries run low, the UAVs landon high tension power lines and steal power to recharge themselves.During recharging, they morph into shapes that appear natural, suchas pigeons or trash. Once regarged, they'll morph back into flyingrobots and take off. The robot also store maps of the power grid,allowing them to navigate visually should their GPS signal be lost orjammed. For details see the SITIS entry for the SBIR EnergyHarvesting for Small Air Vehicles proposal or the DODSBIR description.
More... (http://robots.net/article/2420.html)
More... (http://robots.net/article/2420.html)