Robohub.org
 

Bird-inspired drones may be able to perch on power lines to recharge | Gizmag


by
24 June 2014



share this:

“Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are currently being considered for many applications, although one factor that a lot of people tend to gloss over is the aircrafts’ limited battery range – being able to stay airborne for only 10 to 30 minutes at a time definitely limits their usefulness. Researchers at MIT, however, are developing a possible solution. They’re working on a fixed-wing UAV that can perch on power lines and use their emitted magnetic fields to recharge its battery, before continuing on its way.”

Source: www.gizmag.com




John Payne





Related posts :



Robot Talk Episode 136 – Making driverless vehicles smarter, with Shimon Whiteson

  05 Dec 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Shimon Whiteson from Waymo about machine learning for autonomous vehicles.

Why companies don’t share AV crash data – and how they could

  01 Dec 2025
Researchers have created a roadmap outlining the barriers and opportunities to encourage AV companies to share the data to make AVs safer.

Robot Talk Episode 135 – Robot anatomy and design, with Chapa Sirithunge

  28 Nov 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Chapa Sirithunge from University of Cambridge about what robots can teach us about human anatomy, and vice versa.

Learning robust controllers that work across many partially observable environments

  27 Nov 2025
Exploring designing controllers that perform reliably even when the environment may not be precisely known.

Human-robot interaction design retreat

  25 Nov 2025
Find out more about an event exploring design for human-robot interaction.

Robot Talk Episode 134 – Robotics as a hobby, with Kevin McAleer

  21 Nov 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Kevin McAleer from kevsrobots about how to get started building robots at home.



 

Robohub is supported by:




Would you like to learn how to tell impactful stories about your robot or AI system?


scicomm
training the next generation of science communicators in robotics & AI


 












©2025.05 - Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence