A review on unmanned aerial vehicle for high altitude visual inspection

The unmanned aerial vehicle (uav) uav is an operation aircraft with no pilot on board. Basically, uav operates more flexible, and observable compared to ground approaches or other aerial methods which is airplanes and satellites for high altitude visual inspection purposed. This paper provides a review by studying significant research works on unmanned aerial vehicle for high altitude visual inspection. In particular, the working principle of uav, related works on the uav system for visual inspection using quadcopter and related works on the quadcopter performance are briefly described in this paper. Further research based on reviewed works will be conducted to improve previous experimental work

A low cost way for assessing bird risk hazards in power lines: Fixed-wing small Unmanned Aircraft Systems

Accidents on power lines are one of the most important causes of man-induced mortality for raptors and soaring birds. The factors that condition the hazard have been extensively studied, and currently there are a variety of technical solutions available to miti- gate the risk. Most of the resources in conservation projects to reduce avian mortality now are invested in fieldwork to monitor the lines, which diverts the resources available to install actual corrective measures to mitigate bird hazard. Little progress has been achieved in the methodology to characterize line risk, which is an expensive, tedious, and time- consuming task. In this work we describe the use of low cost small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) equipped with on-board cameras for power line surveillance. As a case study, we characterized four power lines, geo-referenced every pylon in selected portions, and assessed their hazard for birds. We compare the effectiveness of two variants of the sUAS method for data acquisition and two methods of plane control. This work provides evidence of the usefulness of sUAS as a fast, inexpensive, and practical tool in conservation biology, adding to their already known applications in wildlife monitoring, the environmental impact assessment of infrastructures

Remote Sensing methods for power line corridor surveys

AbstractTo secure uninterrupted distribution of electricity, effective monitoring and maintenance of power lines are needed. This literature review article aims to give a wide overview of the possibilities provided by modern remote sensing sensors in power line corridor surveys and to discuss the potential and limitations of different approaches. Monitoring of both power line components and vegetation around them is included. Remotely sensed data sources discussed in the review include synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, optical satellite and aerial images, thermal images, airborne laser scanner (ALS) data, land-based mobile mapping data, and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) data. The review shows that most previous studies have concentrated on the mapping and analysis of network components. In particular, automated extraction of power line conductors has achieved much attention, and promising results have been reported. For example, accuracy levels above 90% have been presented for the extraction of conductors from ALS data or aerial images. However, in many studies datasets have been small and numerical quality analyses have been omitted. Mapping of vegetation near power lines has been a less common research topic than mapping of the components, but several studies have also been carried out in this field, especially using optical aerial and satellite images. Based on the review we conclude that in future research more attention should be given to an integrated use of various data sources to benefit from the various techniques in an optimal way. Knowledge in related fields, such as vegetation monitoring from ALS, SAR and optical image data should be better exploited to develop useful monitoring approaches. Special attention should be given to rapidly developing remote sensing techniques such as UAVs and laser scanning from airborne and land-based platforms. To demonstrate and verify the capabilities of automated monitoring approaches, large tests in various environments and practical monitoring conditions are needed. These should include careful quality analyses and comparisons between different data sources, methods and individual algorithms

Inspection of power transmission lines using UAVs

Power transmission line inspection is an essential task carried out by power companies for the maintenance of a power network. The lines are exposed to the elements which increases the rate of deterioration of small faults and when not repaired in a time efficient manner they can become a serious problem. Current methods for inspection are labour intensive, expensive and are tedious and error prone for humans to perform. A possible solution is a UAV to perform the dull, dirty and dangerous task of power line inspections. As of August 2013, 16 companies were listed with CASA as licensed UAV operators for the purpose of power line inspection. With the maturing of the UAV and related sensors the technology is now accessible to researchers to adapt UAV technology to power transmission line inspections. The next step in the maturing of the technology will be to prove reliability and gain human acceptance. This dissertation will research on UAV technology and present a method for controlling a UAV autonomously using visual navigation and analysing pictures taken in real time for the inspection of power transmission lines. The dissertation will research the combination of automation and picture analysis in a field environment

Procesamiento de nubes de puntos para el seguimiento de líneas de alta tensión

El mantenimiento preventivo de las líneas de alta tensión supone una gran parte de los costes de la red eléctrica de transporte. Para ello, deben llevarse a cabo inspecciones rutinarias, las cuales están consiguiendo automatizarse gracias al empleo de los UAV. Uno de los métodos propuestos consiste en utilizar la información del campo magnético generado por estas líneas para la navegación del dron a lo largo de la misma. Para ello, es necesario correlacionar dichas medidas con la distancia a la línea. El objetivo del proyecto consiste en procesar la información extraída a través de vuelos experimentales en los que un LiDAR nos aporta las nubes de puntos de la escena, y un magnetómetro, en conjunción con un analizador de espectro, nos aporta la densidad espectral de potencia de la señal del campo magnético. Para el procesamiento de nubes de puntos se ha desarrollado una herramienta capaz de leer un archivo bag de ROS y arrojar la distancia media al tendido eléctrico para cada nube de la grabación. Para lograr este objetivo, la nube debe ser sometida a una serie de algoritmos de filtrado y segmentación implementados en la librería PCL. Los resultados muestran un elevado porcentaje de éxito de segmentación de líneas en torno al 93%, y una alta correspondencia entre la distancia medida y las observaciones.Universidad de Sevilla. Máster en Ingeniería Aeronáutic

Climbing and Walking Robots

Nowadays robotics is one of the most dynamic fields of scientific researches. The shift of robotics researches from manufacturing to services applications is clear. During the last decades interest in studying climbing and walking robots has been increased. This increasing interest has been in many areas that most important ones of them are: mechanics, electronics, medical engineering, cybernetics, controls, and computers. Today’s climbing and walking robots are a combination of manipulative, perceptive, communicative, and cognitive abilities and they are capable of performing many tasks in industrial and non- industrial environments. Surveillance, planetary exploration, emergence rescue operations, reconnaissance, petrochemical applications, construction, entertainment, personal services, intervention in severe environments, transportation, medical and etc are some applications from a very diverse application fields of climbing and walking robots. By great progress in this area of robotics it is anticipated that next generation climbing and walking robots will enhance lives and will change the way the human works, thinks and makes decisions. This book presents the state of the art achievments, recent developments, applications and future challenges of climbing and walking robots. These are presented in 24 chapters by authors throughtot the world The book serves as a reference especially for the researchers who are interested in mobile robots. It also is useful for industrial engineers and graduate students in advanced study

New Robot for Power Line Inspection

Abstract-Power line inspection is of the utmost importance for the reliability and stability of electric power distribution. However, manual inspection is a hazardous, slow, expensive and unreliable task. Therefore, new highly specialized robots are required to improve the overall quality and safety of the power line inspection. The research conducted so far has been mainly focused on the development of climbing and flying robots. This paper first addresses the main achievements in the field of robotic power line inspection. The proposed solutions are critically assessed and the associated problems are outlined. Based on these findings, a new concept for robot-assisted power line inspection, combining both climbing and flying principles, is proposed in the second part of the paper. The proposed concept is critically assessed and related to the other established concepts so as to demonstrate its advantages and feasibility for a routine power line inspection