Abstract: On December 28, 2017, the Guangdong Power Grid Company Electric Power Research Institute's key scientific and technological project "Research and Demonstration of Key Technologies for Deepening Application of Large UAV Inspection in Complex Environments" completed the third phase of flight tests in Yangjiang, Guangdong, and the inspection demonstration application mileage has reached 1,000 kilometers.
On December 28, 2017, the key scientific and technological project of the Electric Power Research Institute of Guangdong Power Grid Company, "Research and Demonstration of Key Technologies for Deepening the Application of Large UAV Inspection in Complex Environments", completed the third phase of flight tests in Yangjiang, Guangdong. This phase verified the following subjects: channel inspection demonstration application, fine inspection and return line inspection test, fine inspection experiment and demonstration application in mountainous areas, inspection demonstration application in plain areas, inspection demonstration application in coastal areas, inspection demonstration application at night and in rain and fog conditions. The total mileage of the inspection demonstration application has reached 1,000 kilometers.
The unmanned helicopter miniaturized broadband satellite communication relay system produced by our company works stably in flight tests. When the line-of-sight link is blocked or exceeds the working range of the line-of-sight link, the system can ensure the normal issuance of forward remote control commands, differential GPS signals and mission control commands, and the normal return of return telemetry data and images, effectively solving the problem of limited communication range and meeting the needs of live video, voice, data and control integrated communications.
The system carrier is a twin-rotor unmanned helicopter with a take-off weight of no more than 450Kg and a payload of no more than 80Kg. Under this limitation, after our company's optimized design, the total weight of the system's airborne equipment is no more than 16kg, achieving a small size and light weight to adapt to the problem of limited carrier mission load (no more than 55kg).
The system communication signal adopts burst mode, which can effectively resist rotor shielding, and the shielding gap time can be configured, which is suitable for different models. The communication quality is high, the coverage is large, and it is basically not restricted by terrain conditions. It is the best way to achieve "communication in motion, communication in mountains, communication on plateaus, communication at low altitudes, and communication at sea".
The project was approved in December 2015. The detailed design review of the UAV miniaturized broadband satellite communication relay system was completed in March 2016. The subsystem development was completed in July 2016. The subsystem test and various equipment tests were completed in September. The integration and field commissioning were completed in December. The field flight test and inspection test were completed before June 2017. By the end of December 2017, the inspection application in 6 complex environments had been basically completed, with a total flight time of about 150 hours and a total mileage of 1,000 kilometers.
After nearly 2,000 kilometers of test flights, the reliability, availability, maintainability, operability and safety of the miniaturized satellite communication relay system produced by our company in complex environments have been fully demonstrated. It has solved the technical problems of broadband satellite communication for aircraft with a takeoff weight of 450Kg and a mission load of more than 55Kg, and can be widely used in power line inspection, oil pipeline inspection, etc.