A Novel Multi-Core Parallel Current Differential Sensing Approach for Tethered UAV Power Cable Break Detection

Tethered unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) operating in terrestrial environments face critical safety challenges from power cable breaks, yet existing solutions-including fiber optic sensing (cost > USD 20,000) and impedance analysis (35% payload increase)-suffer from high cost or heavy weight. This study proposes a dual innovation: a real-time break detection method and a low-cost multi-core parallel sensing system design based on ACS712 Hall sensors, achieving high detection accuracy (100% with zero false positives in tests). Unlike conventional techniques, the approach leverages current differential (<i>ΔI</i>) monitoring across parallel cores, triggering alarms when <i>ΔI</i> exceeds <i>I_rate</i>/2 (e.g., 0.3 A for 0.6 A rated current), corresponding to a voltage deviation ≥ 110 mV (normal baseline ≤ 3 mV). The core innovation lies in the integrated sensing system design: by optimizing the parallel deployment of ACS712 sensors and LMV324-based differential circuits, the solution reduces hardware cost to USD 3 (99.99% lower than fiber optic systems), payload by 18%, and power consumption by 23% compared to traditional methods. Post-fault cable temperatures remain ≤56 °C, ensuring safety margins. The 4-core architecture enhances mean time between failures (MTBF) by 83% over traditional systems, establishing a new paradigm for low-cost, high-reliability sensing systems in terrestrial tethered UAV cable health monitoring. Preliminary theoretical analysis suggests potential extensibility to underwater scenarios with further environmental hardening.