Thread: Major engineering challenge

Adding to the crawler idea, consider that this is not an all or nothing proposition. You could, for example, use a commercial tension sensor on the line getting pulled into the hole. When is reaches some threshold below either when the cable would snap, or the crawler will lose forward motion capability, stop the crawler. Then, send a 2nd crawler in behind it to pull some of the slack laying in the hole closer to the first crawler. If the crawler itself is designed to crawl on the sides of the hole (horizontally), it may be able to be crawl over the guide wire. Granted, careful design needs to be considered so the line isn't caught in the second crawler, but it's feasible. Also, consider sending a 2nd DC power wire pair in with the first crawler, which it would pull along with the guide wire. Use a radio/solenoid actuator to allow it to be disconnected via radio. Then, use external DC power to get the unit as far into the hole as the DC wire can be pulled. Then, when that is too much, jettison the DC connection and go to the battery. As long as the DC voltage is just slightly higher than the battery float voltage, no energy will flow from the batteries, and they'll be starting from a full charge at that point, and not at the beginning of the 2000 foot run. - J

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