The Research Of The Autonomous Inspection Robot For Power Transmission Line

The huge economy loss is brought to the people, enterprise and nation for thepower failure. The defections of power line should be found and repaired. Theperiodical check must be fulfilled in the power transmission line.There are some defections in the power transmission line, such as broken thread,loose thread, rusty, damage, imperfection, move, thunderbolt, dirty, decay etc.. Thedefections are regarded as the serious danger in the power system, particularlyoxidization corrosion, the loose contact, the aging insulator. The inspection robot is akind of tool used to check and repair the power transmission line in the close distance.The autonomous inspection robot acquires environment information by sensors,and finds own position and status, and completes series movement, and makes thespecial mission without supervision, and execute the check task on the way of thepower transmission line.The inspection robot is composed of the moving robot and the groundworkstation. This robot is controlled by the ground workstation with the wirelesscommunications. The electricity system is constructed by sensors, motion controlcenter, motors, electrical drivers, power supply, etc. The mechanical system isassembled by wheels, claws, arms, rails and control box. The robot has the structureof double arms with the type of up-down in the same side. The robot moves along theground line, and fulfills the task of obstacles negotiation, and checks the defection,and repairs the failure. Lithium battery is adopted as the power supply, and thewireless router with700MHz is adopted as the wireless communication system. Thesesensors are used as the negotiation, such as photoelectricity switch, scanner, levelsensor, and videocorder. The other sensors are used as the inspection, such as radar,the light camera, the infrared camera, the ultraviolet camera. The softwares includethe joint debugger, the motion controller, the videocorder, the defection finder.The kinematic equations and its solution methods are set up. The posture of thejoints can be calculated according to the joint variables while the robot is negotiatingobstacles. The joint variables can be calculated according to the posture of the joints.The position and posture of the robot can be controlled by the kinematic equations.The dynamics equations are established with the Lagrangian and theNewton-Euler method. The force and torque of the joints can be calculated accordingto the position, velocity, and acceleration. The mechatronic drive system can bedesigned by the dynamics equations.The trajectory planning for robots is put forward. The robot is able to run theground line depending on the wheel. While the robot can’t run the slope line, theclimb method should be adopted. The robot will meet the barriers in the process ofcruise, and the suitable method should be used for negotiation. There are some barriers, such as damper, the torsion tower, etc.. The assistance bridge can’t be used tonegotiate the damper, but it must be used to negotiate the torsion tower in order toimprove the efficiency and speed of the robot.The software of control robot is developed. The method of autonomous graspingline is brought forward for the inspection robot. The rule database comes from thetechnology of the production expert system. The database of joint variables comesfrom the result of train in the simulation tower. The parameter database comes frompower transmission line. The control software is programmed by the VC++and theACCESS database. The method of grasping the ground line with two or three opticalswitches is drew in the experiment. The turn method of the wheel is also put forward.The controller of feedback linearization with wavelet neural network is providedand is used to control the speed of the servo driver. Its simulation result shows thismethod is feasible. The servo driver is developed with the function of position, speed,and torque.The inspection robot was developed and the series experiments were done in thelaboratory and the ground line of actual500KV power transmission line. Theexperiments have been done with the running in the ground line and negotiation withthe damper and the torsion tower. The result of the experiment shows that theinspection robot has the outstanding capabilities of self-navigation, self-negotiationand auto-adaptation. The characteristics of the robot include the simple structure, theconvenience operation, autonomous behavior and high efficiency. This robot issuitable to inspect the power transmission line in the mountainous area. The wholepractical method is provided for the intelligence inspection in the power transmissionlines.