Abstract: In accordance with aspects of the current invention, a method of determining a location of a utility line includes driving one or more transmitters with a continuous wave signal; either adjusting for effects of direct coupling between the transmitters and one or more sensors mounted on the same rigid platform or different platforms or maintaining sufficient separation between a transmitter platform and a sensor platform to minimize such effects; and deriving a position of the line relative to the sensors from the measurements.

Abstract: A locating system is presented. In some embodiments, the locating system includes a first platform, the first platform including a transmitter capable of inducing a current in a line; a second platform, the second platform including a receiver capable of detecting the current in the line; and a processor coupled to the first platform and the second platform, the processor directing the first platform and the second platform to control their motion over the line and collecting location data of the line.

Abstract: A system and method for providing autonomous navigation for an Autonomous Vehicle such as an Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) or an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) in the vicinity of power lines or other signal carrying lines or underwater cable is presented. Autonomous navigation is achieved by measuring the magnitude and phase of the electromagnetic field at an unknown location within a space under excitation by a set of power cables of the power line with one or more orthogonal electromagnetic sensors formed on the AV; and estimating parameters related to a position and orientation of the AV, and load parameters of each cable based on the residual error between the measured set of complex electromagnetic field values corresponding to a combined model of the set of power cables.

Abstract: A method for determining the location and orientation of a transmitter object by measuring a set of complex electromagnetic field magnitude and phase strengths within a space using one or more receivers is provided. The method includes modeling a set of expected complex electromagnetic strengths to estimated position and orientation of the transmitter object. And estimating parameters related to the transmitter object position based on the residual error between the measured set of complex electromagnetic field values and a set of expected electromagnetic field values. Further embodiments include a method as above including a plurality of receivers with known positions within a limited space including the transmitter object. A sensor network including a plurality of receivers to perform the above method is also provided. The receivers may communicate using a wireless channel.

Abstract: A system and method for providing autonomous navigation for an Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) in the vicinity of power lines is presented. Autonomous navigation is achieved by measuring the magnitude and phase of the electromagnetic field at an unknown location within a space under excitation by a set of power cables of the power line with one or more orthogonal electromagnetic sensors formed on the UAV; modeling a set of expected complex electromagnetic strengths of the set of power cables at the currently estimated position and orientation of the UAV based on a model of the set of power cables; and estimating parameters related to a position and orientation of the UAV, and load parameters of each cable based on the residual error between the measured set of complex electromagnetic field values and the set of expected electromagnetic field values corresponding to a combined model of the set of power cables.