Several Indian companies are ready to purchase Russian-developed Kanatokhod (Cablewalker) drones for automated inspection of power lines, which would also help save rare bird species by placing deflectors on the cables, Pavel Kamnev, commercial director of the drone's developer, said on Tuesday
NOVOSIBIRSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st August, 2023) Several Indian companies are ready to purchase Russian-developed Kanatokhod (Cablewalker) drones for automated inspection of power lines, which would also help save rare bird species by placing deflectors on the cables, Pavel Kamnev, commercial director of the drone's developer, said on Tuesday.
The project was launched by Russian company Laboratory of the Future in 2011. The robotic complex can monitor the reliability of power lines and perform some types of maintenance and local repairs without the need to shut down the grid.
"This model is currently undergoing certification in India. Several Indian companies are already ready to purchase them from us to perform work in the country ... It is necessary to conduct demonstration flights, but it is the rainy season in India and we will not start flights until September. In October, we will receive an Indian license that will allow us to use our drones in India," Kamnev said on the sidelines of the Archipelago 2023 design and education intensive in the Russian city of Novosibirsk.
Under Indian law, unlike in Russia, 30% of all power line inspection work must be automated, the commercial director said. The company demonstrated Kanatokhod's capabilities to four major Indian power grid operators in May, and they were "raving about this technology," Kamnev added.
In particular, the drones will be used to place bird deflectors on power lines to protect an endemic species of stork, whose population in India is estimated at around 100, Kamnev said.
Birds often die from electrocution after colliding with live power lines, so Indian grid operators place special reflective disks to scare them away. This laborious process has not yet been automated and results in injuries and deaths among lineworkers, the commercial director said.
To solve this problem, the Laboratory of the Future has developed a special module that mounts 10 bird deflectors on a drone and installs them on power lines.
