Abstract
The effective monitoring and maintenance of power lines are becoming increasingly important due to a global growing dependence on electricity. The costs and risks associated with the traditional foot patrol and helicopter-based inspections can be reduced by using UAVs with the appropriate sensors. However, this implies developing algorithms to make the power line inspection process reliable and autonomous. In order to overcome the limitations of visual methods in the presence of poor light and noisy backgrounds, we propose to address the problem of power line detection and modeling based on LiDAR. The PLDM, Power Line LiDAR-based Detection and Modeling, is a novel approach to detect power lines. Its basis is a scan-by-scan adaptive neighbor minimalist comparison for all the points in a point cloud. The power line final model is obtained by matching and grouping several line segments, using their collinearity properties. Horizontally, the power lines are modeled as a straight line, and vertically as a catenary curve. Using a real dataset, the algorithm showed promising results both in terms of outputs and processing time, adding real-time object-based perception capabilities for other layers of processing.
Highlights
During the last few years, there has been an increase in the research effort in the field of aerial robotics, leading to a growth of the application scenarios with UAVs [1]
The dataset was performed during a mapping survey of a rock stockpile in the Malaposta quarry (Figure 10), in Santa Maria da Feira, Aveiro, Portugal, using the UAV STORK [66] with a Velodyne
This paper has focused on the development of an algorithm capable of detecting and modeling surrounding power lines in real-time, the PL2 DM
Summary
During the last few years, there has been an increase in the research effort in the field of aerial robotics, leading to a growth of the application scenarios with UAVs [1]. This wider set of applications is related to a continuous change on the research focus, which is starting to focus on higher level tasks (such as navigation and task planning, paying attention to visual odometry, localization and mapping). UAVs can be applied for search and rescue missions, surveillance and inspection of structures, among others [2,3]. Due to their ability of collecting data from different positions, angles and distances, and supporting a reasonable payload of sensors, multirotor UAVs are suitable for the inspection of electric assets, such as electric pylons and insulators, being, interesting for electrical power providers [4]
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