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• Proposes an alternative method to scavenge power from transmission lines to power vibration deicing robots. • The energy harvester uses the electromagnetic field around the transmission line. • Proposes a nonlinear mathematical mode to have an initial system level design of the energy harvester. • Proper test platform has been developed to validate the performance of the energy harvester. This paper proposed the nonlinear modeling and a full-scale testing method for an electromagnetic energy harvester (EMEH) used to power-up a vibration de-icing robot used in power transmission line. The aim of the proposed work is to have an detailed analytical model of the EMEH on MATLAB environment which is capable of considering the EMEH ferromagnetic core material nonlinear characteristic in the design stage and can provide a fast and accurate analytical model with different design parameters for manufacturing. The nonlinear model is derived by considering Norton equivalent circuit of the EMEH with a nonlinear Norton equivalent inductance. With the nonlinear model design data, a prototype is manufactured and different performance tests such as the validation for the Norton equivalent circuit parameters, AC-DC conversion, and maximum power transfer from the EMEH using the discontinuously conducting DC-DC converters are conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]