New Robot for Power Line Inspection

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.