Abstract
This work presents some results about power transmission line tracking control and a full autonomous inspection using a quadrotor helicopter. The presented in this paper power line autonomous inspection allows detecting power line defects caused by thunderstorms, corrosion, insulator malfunctions, and same time monitoring of vegetation under the power line corridor. Traditional inspection is performed by helicopters equipped with high-resolution cameras or by direct visual examination carried out by highly skilled staff climbing over de-energized power lines. However, the visual inspection is time-expensive and costly. Moreover, due to regulatory constraints, the helicopters cannot cover narrow mountainous areas. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are an attractive alternative for power line inspection. In this work, a mathematical model for the quadrotor helicopter used in the autonomous inspection is presented. The model is successfully evaluated through simulations and flight experiments. Next, the construction of a quadrotor helicopter system and its application to power line autonomous inspection is introduced. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate the efficiency and applicability of that system. The results of this research are in the process of implementation for regular inspection of electrical transmission lines.
Highlights
A common approach nowadays is to use helicopters equipped with high-resolution cameras, but in such inspection, helicopters cannot cover narrow mountainous regions due to regulatory constraints
Because the magnetic field generated by the power lines interferes with the internal compass of the flight controller, the heading of the vehicle is estimated through a moving baseline real-time kinematics (RTK) [35] technique
This work aims to develop a reliable autonomous power line tracking and inspection system based on a quadrotor helicopter
Summary
Electric power companies worldwide are obliged to guarantee disruptive electrical power supply. A Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensor detect and reconstruct the power line shape [15] Such navigation may be applied to power distribution lines, but manual flight cannot be performed safely enough when there is a substantial distance to the inspection object. Similar algorithms for power transmission line tracking using position-based visual servo controllers are developed in [10, 12, 13] and are evaluated through several simulations. The system can cover several kilometers a day They have developed a similar robotic system called LineScout, capable of inspecting a single transmission line [20]. It can acquire visual information and measure the joints’ electrical resistance and monitor the corrosion level of the conductors. The last section concludes the paper and gives some plans for further expansion of this work
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