High Voltage Power Line Maintenance & Inspection by Using Smart Robotics

Abstract

This paper is devoted to share innovative robot application for transmission line maintenance & inspection. For additional conductor stringing, the pulling robot runs along an overhead ground wire (OHGW) and pulls a pilot rope over the ground through stringing blocks conveying the pilot rope at intervals. The pulling robot crosses over obstacles under the transmission line making jobs performed easily without impact on nearby people. Moreover, a novel robot development for transmission line aerial inspection is investigated. The objective is to create a prototype of a mobile robot for inspecting transmission lines. The robot can move along an OHGW and automatically pass through obstacles. Also, the inspection robot can record data of a transmission line with both online and offline modes. Transmission line inspection using the robot can reduce labor cost and be a new method improving patrol and inspection accuracy when compared to the one using humans.