Inspection robot for high voltage power transmission line

Abstract

The procedure used for inspection and verification of damages in cables is highly dependent on the experience of a skilled technician who, using binoculars, covers the transmission lines in a helicopter, and is able of visualing points where seems to exist damaged spots in the wires and in insulators of the transmission lines . After this previous identification, teams are sent to verify, with greater detail , if the imperfection is relevant .To confirm the relevance of imperfections, the lines are de-energized and the repair or substitution can be carried out. With the objective of complementing the service of inspection in transmission lines and making it less dependent of the technician skill, the development of a system of services in lines of energy transmission that includes the automation as an auxiliary tool in the identification of imperfections and as a mechanism of diminishing the lines disconnection time. In this work, a mobile robot is presented as a tool to automate the operations of inspection. This robot, currently teleported, while travelling upon the wires, gathers cable images, through cameras, and sends them to an operations base.