[Ccecil]

That was my thought as well...I suppose there may be something I am not thinking of. Perhaps they get more total energy if they "perch" on the tower.

[bentcorner]

My gut says there's something like an inverse-square law that governs how far away they can effectively charge.

[kube-system]

It’s exactly the inverse square law.

You get a million times more power if you can put a coil 1mm away from the wire than if you hover 1 meter away.

[japaget]

It's actually an inverse first power law, assuming that the distance of the drone from the wire is much less than the length of the wire. The inverse square law applies only to a point source of electrical energy, to a sphere, or to an object whose largest dimension is much less than the distance to the drone.

[beachy]

Yes, feels like perching via some insulated "feet" and only using energy for stabilisation (as opposed to flight) would allow the drone to get very cloe (and suck much more power) from the line.

[TomatoCo]

It'll definitely charge faster, if only because it's drawing less power to stay up and getting closer. The only question is, is it like 10% or 100% faster?

[stavros]

Drones consume something like 100W to stay in the air (ballpark, of course), so they'd probably never charge if they had to hover.

[danielheath]

No, but if there were something convenient for them to grab and hang from, like a power transmission line…

[jacquesm]

More like 190W / Kg.