Abstract
Abstract. This paper presents an innovative power line corridor inspection approach using UAV LiDAR edge computing and 4G real real-time transmission. First, sample point clouds of power towers are manually classified and decomposed into components according to five mainstream tower types: T type, V type, n type, I type and owl head type. A deep learning AI agent, named “Tovos Age Agent” internally, is trained by supervised deep learning the sample data sets under a 3D CNN framework. Second, laser points of power line corridors are simultaneously classified into Ground, Vegetation, Tower, Cable, and Building types using semantic feature constraints during the UAV-borne LiDAR acquisition process, and then tower types are further recognized by Tovos Agent for strain span separation. Spatial and topological relations between Cable points and other types are analyzed according to industry standards to identify potential risks at the same time. Finally, all potential risks are organized as industry standard reports and transmitted onto central server via 4G data link, so that maintenance personal can be notified the risks as soon as possible. Tests on LiDAR data of 1000 KV power line show the promising results of the proposed method.
Highlights
As a rapid developing country, China holds an increasing demands for power consumption over decades
This paper presents an innovative power line corridor inspection approach using UAV LiDAR edge computing and 4G real-time transmission
Laser points of power line corridors are simultaneously classified into Ground, Vegetation, Tower, Cable, and Building types using semantic feature constraints during the UAV-borne LiDAR acquisition process, and tower types are further recognized by Tovos Agent for strain span separation
Summary
As a rapid developing country, China holds an increasing demands for power consumption over decades. The application of oblique photogrammetry on power line inspection is not successful and has been abandoned gradually after a few years’ attempts in China This is because first, power line cables are thin features instead of planar features, so that corresponding matches can hardly be identified during image matching; second, the background of power line corridors are rather monotonous since they are usually built in desolate regions, which result in difficult image matching. The UAVs are usually operated by power line inspectors of the power grid companies They are not trained with professional survey and mapping knowledge, so the equipped laser scanning devices must be easy to use, and the data processing procedure should be Corresponding author.
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