Smart Transmission Line Maintenance and Inspection using Mobile Robots

Article history: Received: 21 January, 2020 Accepted: 07 June, 2020 Online: 21 June, 2020 The paper presents sharing several of experiences and practices on smart robotic application for overhead transmission line maintenance and inspection. First, the pilot-line pulling robot is an invention used to pull a pilot line which is an important step for additional high voltage conductor installation. The puller robot can traverse the overhead ground wire, OHGW, and pulls a lead line via a set of cradle blocks at intervals, carrying the line above the ground. The robotic puller passes over barriers below the power line, such as the road with traffic, power distribution lines, river, or vegetation making tasks achieved conveniently, safely, and rapidly without impact on nearby communities. The robot was further utilized to pull a lead line/conductor crossing over the electrical substation without interrupting energy and pull a lead line for the improvement of transmission line ground clearances. The developed pilot-line pulling robot has been accredited as the corporate best practice; the standards for innovation, operation, and maintenance are archived for works at all EGAT transmission line operation & maintenance units nationally. Moreover, EGAT was now jointly investigating with universities on a new robotic device for aerial transmission line inspection. The target of the research is to create a mobile robot prototype for inspection of overhead power lines. The inspection robot shall crawl along the ground wire and transpose autonomously across installed equipment on the ground wire, such as vibration dampers, suspension clamps, compression dead ends, etc. In addition, the inspection robot is able to take photos and videos during a transmission line inspection in both offline and online features. Using the robot, transmission line inspection’s labor cost can be reduced, and the new method helps improve patrol and inspection efficiency, comparing to the conventional manpower method. Trough utilization of the new maintenance and inspection robots, utilities can minimize transmission line operation & maintenance budget.