Cargando…
Autonomous UAV System for Cleaning Insulators in Power Line Inspection and Maintenance
The inspection and maintenance tasks of electrical installations are very demanding. Nowadays, insulator cleaning is carried out manually by operators using scaffolds, ropes, or even helicopters. However, these operations involve potential risks for humans and the electrical structure. The use of Un...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2021
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8708355/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34960582 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s21248488 |
_version_ | 1784622663766900736 |
---|---|
author | Lopez Lopez, Ricardo Batista Sanchez, Manuel Jesus Perez Jimenez, Manuel Arrue, Begoña C. Ollero, Anibal |
author_facet | Lopez Lopez, Ricardo Batista Sanchez, Manuel Jesus Perez Jimenez, Manuel Arrue, Begoña C. Ollero, Anibal |
author_sort | Lopez Lopez, Ricardo |
collection | PubMed |
description | The inspection and maintenance tasks of electrical installations are very demanding. Nowadays, insulator cleaning is carried out manually by operators using scaffolds, ropes, or even helicopters. However, these operations involve potential risks for humans and the electrical structure. The use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) to reduce the risk of these tasks is rising. This paper presents an UAV to autonomously clean insulators on power lines. First, an insulator detection and tracking algorithm has been implemented to control the UAV in operation. Second, a cleaning tool has been designed consisting of a pump, a tank, and an arm to direct the flow of cleaning liquid. Third, a vision system has been developed that is capable of detecting soiled areas using a semantic segmentation neuronal network, calculating the trajectory for cleaning in the image plane, and generating arm trajectories to efficiently clean the insulator. Fourth, an autonomous system has been developed to land on a charging pad to charge the batteries and potentially fill the tank with cleaning liquid. Finally, the autonomous system has been validated in a controlled outdoor environment. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8708355 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-87083552021-12-25 Autonomous UAV System for Cleaning Insulators in Power Line Inspection and Maintenance Lopez Lopez, Ricardo Batista Sanchez, Manuel Jesus Perez Jimenez, Manuel Arrue, Begoña C. Ollero, Anibal Sensors (Basel) Article The inspection and maintenance tasks of electrical installations are very demanding. Nowadays, insulator cleaning is carried out manually by operators using scaffolds, ropes, or even helicopters. However, these operations involve potential risks for humans and the electrical structure. The use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) to reduce the risk of these tasks is rising. This paper presents an UAV to autonomously clean insulators on power lines. First, an insulator detection and tracking algorithm has been implemented to control the UAV in operation. Second, a cleaning tool has been designed consisting of a pump, a tank, and an arm to direct the flow of cleaning liquid. Third, a vision system has been developed that is capable of detecting soiled areas using a semantic segmentation neuronal network, calculating the trajectory for cleaning in the image plane, and generating arm trajectories to efficiently clean the insulator. Fourth, an autonomous system has been developed to land on a charging pad to charge the batteries and potentially fill the tank with cleaning liquid. Finally, the autonomous system has been validated in a controlled outdoor environment. MDPI 2021-12-20 /pmc/articles/PMC8708355/ /pubmed/34960582 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s21248488 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Lopez Lopez, Ricardo Batista Sanchez, Manuel Jesus Perez Jimenez, Manuel Arrue, Begoña C. Ollero, Anibal Autonomous UAV System for Cleaning Insulators in Power Line Inspection and Maintenance |
title | Autonomous UAV System for Cleaning Insulators in Power Line Inspection and Maintenance |
title_full | Autonomous UAV System for Cleaning Insulators in Power Line Inspection and Maintenance |
title_fullStr | Autonomous UAV System for Cleaning Insulators in Power Line Inspection and Maintenance |
title_full_unstemmed | Autonomous UAV System for Cleaning Insulators in Power Line Inspection and Maintenance |
title_short | Autonomous UAV System for Cleaning Insulators in Power Line Inspection and Maintenance |
title_sort | autonomous uav system for cleaning insulators in power line inspection and maintenance |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8708355/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34960582 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s21248488 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT lopezlopezricardo autonomousuavsystemforcleaninginsulatorsinpowerlineinspectionandmaintenance AT batistasanchezmanueljesus autonomousuavsystemforcleaninginsulatorsinpowerlineinspectionandmaintenance AT perezjimenezmanuel autonomousuavsystemforcleaninginsulatorsinpowerlineinspectionandmaintenance AT arruebegonac autonomousuavsystemforcleaninginsulatorsinpowerlineinspectionandmaintenance AT olleroanibal autonomousuavsystemforcleaninginsulatorsinpowerlineinspectionandmaintenance |