Implementation and Feasibility of Environmental Electric Field Measurement Based on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

An environmental electric field (EF) measurement technology is proposed, based on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for working in the vicinity of high-voltage overhead lines. In this technology, the designed EF sensor and selected distance sensor are mounted on the UAV to realize non-contact EF measurement. Based on a parallel capacitor plate structure, the designed EF sensor implements a single-axis EF sensing method that can be used to measure the EF values and their frequency around the overhead line. The selected distance sensor was used to ensure a safe distance between the UAV and the measured overhead line. Moreover, this distance sensor was used to mark the relative positional relationship between the overhead line geometry and the measured EF distribution. Following the integration of the sensing system on the UAV, the electromagnetic interference of the entire UAV system (including UAV platform, embedded system, distance sensor, and ZigBee wireless communication) was analyzed with the designed EF sensor to understand possible environmental EF measurement errors. The accuracy of the proposed technology was evaluated using an indoor model of a scaled-down overhead line. Moreover, an outdoor field measurement was conducted to verify the feasibility of the proposed technology for the EF measurement.