Patent ID: 11865926
Assignee: NXP AERONAUTICS RESEARCH, LLC
Field: Transport (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B  H | IPC B  H

Claim 0:
1. An apparatus, comprising:
(a) a plurality of separated electrodes;
(b) electrical components electrically connected with the plurality of electrodes, at least one or more of the electrical components being configurable to establish each of a plurality of different electric circuits, each of the different electric circuits comprising a set of two or more mutually exclusive subsets of the plurality of electrodes, the electrodes in each subset that have more than one electrode being electrically connected with each other for avoiding a voltage differential therebetween, and the one or more electrodes of each subset being electrically insulated from each electrode of any other subset of the set for enabling one or more voltage differentials between the subsets of the set resulting from a differential in electric field strength experienced when the apparatus is within a vicinity of the powerlines, wherein the subsets of the set are interconnected such that the one or more voltage differentials between the subsets causes a current to flow through the electric circuit of the set for powering the electrical load; and
(c) a control assembly comprising
(i) one or more voltage-detector components configured to detect voltage differentials of the sets; and
(ii) a processor enabled to configure one or more of the electrical components in order to establish one of the plurality of different electric circuits for powering an electrical load based on the detected voltage differentials.