Monitoring the Condition of Contact Network Using Electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

The research purpose is to ensure the required duration of continuous monitoring of the electrified railway transport overhead catenary system. This monitoring is carried out by using electric helicopter-type unmanned aerial aircrafts. To achieve this purpose the method was used for recharging the onboard battery pack by the energy of the electromagnetic field generated by traction currents flowing through the contact wire or suspension wire during the flight of the aircraft in close proximity to the overhead catenary system. To implement this method, an inductive way of transferring electromagnetic energy from the overhead catenary system to the apparatus onboard system is used. An electric winding is used as the receiver of this energy. This winding is a part of the onboard charging device and is installed on the aircraft. The subject of the research was the 25 kV AC chain-type catenary suspension. A finite element model of the circuit was developed. The monitoring device was represented by the Freefly Alta 8 hexacopter with an Alta Flight Battery Pack from Freefly. The following results and recommendations can be made: using the mathematical modeling methods utilizing the COMSOL Multiphysics® 6.0 program, one can prove the possibility of recharging by the electromagnetic field of the current in the catenary wire, at the lateral displacement of the aircraft from the longitudinal axis of the catenary wire. The thermal calculation results for the battery pack showed that at negative ambient temperatures, the use of thermal containers is an effective and efficient measure for maintaining the optimal temperature regime for the battery pack for an extended period with an acceptable increase in takeoff weight in terms of the maximum takeoff weight.