This paper presents a running and obstacle-navigation control principle for an inspection robot, and describes the development of control system based on a distributed expert system (DES) and electromagnetic shielding of control system. The inspection robot can run on the overhead ground wires and navigate obstacles (counterweights, clamps and towers) autonomously, and inspect the damage of 500KV extra-high voltage power transmission line equipment (towers, power transmission lines, insulators). The field experiments of running on a real 500KV power transmission line show the robot control system has possessed main functions for inspection tasks.

Development of an inspection robot control system for 500KV extra-high voltage power transmission lines

This paper presents the current state of the art in mobile robots used on power transmission lines. Many theoretical and experimental studies have been conducted in order to develop autonomous machines to travel along transmission lines to perform inspection and/or repair work. These machines can improve efficiency, reduce labour costs and are expected to reduce the risk of injury to maintenance personnel. Despite there already being a number of pieces of theoretical research and technological developments in this area, problems related to stability, ability and autonomy still exist. As such, first this paper presents the main studies already carried out and the devices generally used on power transmission lines. After the latest trends have been presented, a new idea for module robots carrying out inspections/maintenance of power transmission lines is presented. Finally, the future of mobile robots applied to power transmission lines is discussed.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.5772/56791

Review and Latest Trends in Mobile Robots Used on Power Transmission Lines

The broken strand of overhead ground wire (OGW), which is mainly caused by lightning strikes or the vibration of OGW, can lead to serious damage to the power grid system. Power-line maintenance work is generally carried out by specialized workers under extra-high voltage live-line conditions which involve great risks and high labor intensity. In this paper, we present a broken strand detection method which can be practically applied by maintenance robots. This method is mainly implemented in three steps. First, we obtain the region of interest (ROI) from the image acquired by the robot. Second, a histogram of an oriented gradients descriptor vector is calculated to obtain the image gradient feature in ROI. In the third step, we apply a multiclassifier which consists of two support vector machines to classify the wires into normal wire, broken strand malfunction, and obstacles on OGW. Experiment results successfully demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

A Vision-Based Broken Strand Detection Method for a Power-Line Maintenance Robot

This paper dealt with a state-of-the-art maintenance robots for power transmission lines (PTL). The paper summarized the PTL maintenance robots that have been developed by eight major research institutions. The main features of the robot navigation were derived and classified through analysis of researches conducted by those institutions. The derived six main features were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively through readiness level assessment. For this, system readiness level (SRL) was used to evaluate the readiness level of overall system. The SRL was obtained using technology readiness level (TRL) and integration readiness level (IRL). In addition, the readiness level for each feature was reviewed through statistical analysis using box and whisker plot. In conclusion, we confirmed the status and direction of research and development on PTL maintenance robots by analyzing conventional robots with respect to six main features.

https://www.koreascience.or.kr:443/article/JAKO201635551194099.pdf

A State of the Art of Power Transmission Line Maintenance Robots

To monitor the running conditions and find out the damages of the power grids, the robotic technologies have been applied to conduct the inspection tasks of power transmission lines (PTLs) instead of worker or helicopter. Supported by the national high technology research and development program of China from 2002, the state key laboratory of robotics, Shenyang institute of automation, Chinese academy of sciences (SIACAS), has been focusing on the development of the inspection robot for 500kV extra high voltage (EHV) PTLs. Up to now, three generations of the inspection robot prototypes have been developed. In this paper, an overview of the research for these prototypes by SIACAS is given. Then, two latest developments which include a PTLs inspection robot and an insulator detection robot are introduced, respectively. The key technologies such as mechanism, control system, and operation modes, are described in detail. Field experimental results show that the robot prototypes can carry out the practical inspection tasks for 500kV EHV PTLs.

Research of power transmission line maintenance robots in SIACAS

This paper proposes a mechanism and a control system for a wire mobile robot with a multi-unit structure The mobile robot has an ultrasonic sensing system for environment recognition enabling it to move autonomously With this mechanism, control and sensing system, the robot can transfer to a branch wire and avoid obstacles on the wire This paper first clarifies the design of a mechanism and a method for avoiding obstacles and transferring the robot to a branch wire Then it shows experimental results using a prototype of mobile robot with an ultrasonic sensing system

S. Aoshima

Papers

A Wire Mobile Robot with Multi-unit Structure