Woke up with an idea - 18V Ridgid Fly-by-Wire Jobsite Survey Drone
Thought I'd crosspost this here - main thing I'm unaware of and searching for input/experienced perspectives: is power-by-wire a thing, or feasible? If it was, I may be inclined to try building something for myself if it doesn't already exist. I know control/data by fiber/wire has become a thing - probably for different reasons than I'm looking at - but don't know about power supply.
Original post below:
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What if you could supply not only control but also power via a tiny wire. Differentiates the product from any other drone, lower cost and doesn't try to compete on high-tech, range, etc. But gives advantage of clear, solid, high-res video/images, and solves for battery life.
Base station runs on 18V battery of course, and can run the drone up in the air for hours. Has a swiveling fold-up video display, Bluetooth connect to phone, simple interface not unlike a car dashcam to pushbutton save a 1 min video, upload to phone via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth maybe...
Simple-ish automatic controls, maybe even full-auto control with just basic height, rotation, and camera pitch control via base station, voice command, or phone control... Or some 'follow' logic if you can set a focal point for it. Allows you to park the base station, send it up, go climb a ladder or work up on a roof with it following (or one million other cool applications). Or carry the base station and do a walk-around of a house and check out the perimeter of the roof/gutters...
Anyhoo, I know a full-flight quad or drone would do it at a higher level, but potential advantages could be attractive if they're feasible to hit right:
- price point (via simplified control systems and no flight battery or radio control system needed)
- very long battery life via wire
- little to no piloting experience needed (via limited 'up-down' point and shoot control scheme, required and in a way facilitated by the wire wire tether situation
- all the use cases already in play for drone video/POV (but now more accessible for aforementioned reasons)... pro-quality video or stills you could provide a customer to show a problem or back up a compelling quote, reno/remodel visualizations, post-work documentation for marketing, or just document/view/assess high up stuff that would've been impossible to get a view, or save ladder trips...
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EDIT - I also wonder about the piloting/licensing/regulatory bar for something like this - would a tethered situation be limited or differentiated enough to stay 'below radar' of some drone requirements in a city setting, for example?
