Wood-Framed Drone Developed in Russia for Energy Infrastructure Inspections
The aircraft can carry payloads weighing up to 6 kilograms while performing inspection and maintenance tasks at power facilities.
Vserossiysky teplotekhnichesky institut (All-Russian Thermal Engineering Institute) has unveiled a new quadcopter built around a structural wood frame and designed for work at energy facilities. The drone can be used for thermal and visual inspections of power lines and transmission towers, as well as for surveying smokestacks, cooling towers, district heating pipelines, and gas distribution routes. It can also transport small instruments and tools to hard-to-reach areas at thermal and conventional power plants.
Engineering calculations showed that structural wood offers strength characteristics comparable to those of metal and composite materials while providing significantly better vibration damping. The experimental drone can carry payloads of up to 6 kilograms. According to the developers, the concept could eventually lead to an entire family of unmanned aerial vehicles with payload capacities ranging from 2 to 10 kilograms.
