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...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Lopez Lopez, Ricardo, Batista Sanchez, Manuel Jesus, Perez Jimenez, Manuel, Arrue, Begoña C., Ollero, Anibal
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