Back in England, the control station powering the drone was only a walk away, but it could have been anywhere in the world, explains McKenna, and the pilot would only need internet connectivity to issue high-level instructions and override the system if anything goes wrong. Instead of humans and helicopters, McKenna’s vision is to have armies of drones inspecting and maintaining the electricity transmission grid using preprogrammed templates. This is possible because of commonality between towers.
Autonomous Drones Could Soon Run the UK’s Energy Grid
