Robotic systems applied to power substations - A state-of-the-art survey

This paper presents a state-of-the-art survey of robotic systems applied to power substations. Bibliographic research for this paper identified some 75 scientific publications and 39 patents dating from the late 1980s to 2013. Aside from recent work at Hydro-Québec (IREQ) in Canada on a field robot for power substations, almost all the R&D work identified comes from Asia, especially during the last decade, with the main research developments involving a mobile robot named SmartGuard from State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC). The first section of the paper presents robotic systems dedicated to inspection and security in power substations, while the second part of the paper looks at robots for operation and maintenance tasks in substations. A list of patents for robots for substations is also provided.