Hacker News: nhma

New comment by nhma in "DaVinci Resolve 21.1"

nhma — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 19:42:55 +0000

Runs flawlessly on my strix halo Ubuntu 24 machine after fixing the install process [1]. I have an ffmpeg script that batch converts all my files into the supported codec.

[1] https://github.com/nhma20/strix-halo-resolve-24-04/

New comment by nhma in "Drones that recharge directly on transmission lines"

nhma — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 00:55:57 +0000

The prototype in the linked video was first tested back in 2023, and since then a few startups have set their sights on the technology (e.g. Nomadic Drones and Voltair). When working on the linked prototype we ran into some fundamental issues. Firstly, the recharging will only work with AC lines, and there's currently a lot of hype around UHVDC lines which are not compatible. Secondly, the AC lines must carry substantial current (ideally thousands of amps) for the recharging to not take forever. You can of course carry a much larger transformer on the drone to compensate, but this will in turn severely limit your flight time (ours was 1kg on a drone of 4.5kg and we could charge with 50W from 300A line current). You also have to account for significant daily fluctuations in the line current. It'll be interesting to see how the tech evolves, and I'll definitely be following these startups closely.

New comment by nhma in "Hybrid Aerial Underwater Drone – Bachelor Project [video]"

nhma — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 03:59:10 +0000

In their report (https://gitlab.com/hybrid-drone/paper) the authors mention that they implemented one controller for flying and another for diving. The transition seems to be initiated manually, but they propose a few ways of automatic detection and transition.

New comment by nhma in "Hybrid Aerial Underwater Drone – Bachelor Project [video]"

nhma — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 03:45:47 +0000

As far as I can tell from their report (https://gitlab.com/hybrid-drone/paper), the authors did not consider underwater RF transmissions in their prototype design and simply use standard COTS components typically used for DIY UAVs.

Hybrid Aerial Underwater Drone – Bachelor Project [video]

nhma — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 08:37:34 +0000

https://www.energy.aau.dk/aau-drone-can-both-fly-and-dive-un...

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46352286

Points: 66

# Comments: 33

New comment by nhma in "Two Amazon delivery drones crash into crane in commercial area of Tolleson, AZ"

nhma — Fri, 03 Oct 2025 01:17:01 +0000

MmWave radar is commonly used for this purpose on both commercial and research UAVs, see e.g.: https://youtu.be/MORFX3CFygk

New comment by nhma in "Penn to reduce graduate admissions, rescind acceptances amid research cuts"

nhma — Sun, 23 Feb 2025 20:19:34 +0000

A more relevant metric than admins/professor would be admin staff/scientific staff. Given that a research group under a professor will probably contain numerous associate professors, assistant professors, postdocs, PhDs, and research assistants who all generate some admin workload, 3 admins per professor does not sound outlandish.

New comment by nhma in "Flying drones in 500k volts [video]"

nhma — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:10:19 +0000

This is part of our research into drones for power line maintenance that we conduct at the University of Southern Denmark. You may have seen our previous work on drones that can recharge directly from power lines (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-uekD6VTIQ), and this work is a direct extension of that.

Flying drones in 500k volts [video]

nhma — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:08:44 +0000

Article URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqE0tmjARv0

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43023787

Points: 1

# Comments: 1

Intrinsic sense of touch for intuitive physical human-robot interaction

nhma — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 11:55:15 +0000

Article URL: https://www.science.org/stoken/author-tokens/ST-2065/full

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41707207

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by nhma in "Autonomous Overhead Powerline Recharging for Uninterrupted Drone Operations [video]"

nhma — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 08:55:38 +0000

Powerline inspection and maintenance are the primary use cases for this technology. And at least this particular system is in the early spinout process via https://www.ongrid.tech/

New comment by nhma in "Autonomous Overhead Powerline Recharging for Uninterrupted Drone Operations [video]"

nhma — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 08:45:15 +0000

The gripper has several modes. There's a mode for charging the battery and providing holding force given AC powerline current, a mode for just holding the drone without charging given AC powerline current (if battery is full), and another mode where a small current (about 1W power) is taken from the battery and used to provide holding force in the case where there is no powerline current. Additionally, the gripper can be designed to fail open or fail closed, whichever is deemed appriate for the end-user.

New comment by nhma in "Autonomous Overhead Powerline Recharging for Uninterrupted Drone Operations [video]"

nhma — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 06:35:25 +0000

Earlier post (also no discussion): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39679772

New comment by nhma in "Autonomous Overhead Powerline Recharging for Uninterrupted Drone Operations [video]"

nhma — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 06:13:45 +0000

The voltage of the powerline is not relevant since the charging principle is based on inductive coupling. So as long as you have a current above ~100A the harvester should work, irrespective of voltage. And high currents equal higher charging power.

To optimize charging time, the drone could perhaps analyze the magnetic fields to determine which line has the highest current to optimize charging time. But I would assume some sort of balancing is happening between the lines and phases.

The powerline used is a custom mockup with just 5V AC. But we have also landed on real powerlines. I think there's a video in the channel of the OP video.

New comment by nhma in "Charging Drones from Power Lines"

nhma — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 14:28:19 +0000

These are our newest results from our self-recharging drone system, to be presented at ICRA later this year.

You can watch a video demonstration here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-uekD6VTIQ

If you want to watch some of the mishaps and some of our other work, there's this condensed, slightly cheesy video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5FFx8VXjGw

And if you happen to be in Rimini for the European Robotics Forum this week you can come by our booth for a chat and have a look at our drone in the flesh.

Charging Drones from Power Lines

nhma — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 14:14:04 +0000

Article URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.06533

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39679772

Points: 4

# Comments: 1

New comment by nhma in "Autonomous drone recharging from power lines [video]"

nhma — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 12:58:00 +0000

TL;DW: A video of a drone recharging itself from a power line.

My research group works on aerial robots and we recently demonstrated sustained autonomous operations by inductively recharging from overhead power lines. A radar-based perception system feeds into an MPC-based trajectory controller which steers the drone towards the target power line. As it approaches, a passive gripping mechanism grasps the cable. Holding force and energy harvesting is achieved by manipulating the current in the split core transformer embedded in the gripper.

For now, the prototype system is only being tested on high-current low-voltage (5V 300A) power lines and the ratio between flight time and charging time is not yet great.

We are working on a pre-print, but in the meantime you can find our previous work here https://portal.findresearcher.sdu.dk/en/persons/esme/publica... and related videos on our YouTube channel.

Autonomous drone recharging from power lines [video]

nhma — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 12:58:00 +0000

Article URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-uekD6VTIQ

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39369289

Points: 4

# Comments: 1

New comment by nhma in "[dead]"

nhma — Sat, 10 Feb 2024 13:21:30 +0000

TL;DW: A video of a drone recharging itself from a power line.

For now, the prototype system is only being tested on high-current low-voltage power lines and the ratio between flight time and charging time is not yet great.

We are working on a pre-print, but in the meantime you can find our previous work here https://portal.findresearcher.sdu.dk/en/persons/esme/publica... and related videos on our YouTube channel.

New comment by nhma in "Flying Umbrellas to Take Convenience to the NEXT Level"

nhma — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 05:36:00 +0000

Besides obvious issues such as minor gusts of wind, flight time, and spinning knives around eye level, this is a pretty novel idea. The amount of uses people have found for drones is impressive, e.g. mapping, spray painting, fruit picking, seed planting, transportation, exploration of Mars, environmental surveillance, ship parking, antenna testing, metal detection, mine sweeping, wind turbine installation, and I guess now also autonomous umbrella.