Robot For Live-Line Inspection Of Porcelain Insulators

Insulators are used for insulation and support of power lines. For this reason, the inspection is necessary to improve the reliability of the live-line. Currently, the commonly used device for inspecting the insulator is a fork-type device. For safety, the lineman must use a very long hot stick with a certain distance from the target insulator string. It is difficult to accurately and precisely manipulate the device. For UHV and long span lines, insulator strings up to ten meters to more than twenty meters, unable to carry out manual inspection operations.This paper aims to solve a number of key technology problems overhead transmission line insulator strings, design a good performance robot for transmission line in China. In this paper, work completed as follows:1, Describes the principle of the inspection of insulator strings, the method for the inspection of insulator strings, and the research status of insulator strings inspection robot. Made a presentation of the background and the main contents.2, In-depth study of the appearance of the insulator strings. Each insulator string composed of several insulators pieces end to end. The insulator sheet edges relatively flat. Based on this characteristic, we propose a flexible wheel-leg mechanism, so that the robot can not only walk along tension insulator string but also suspension insulator string. The experiments show that the wheel-leg mechanism efficiency. In order to prevent the robot falls, this paper presents a robot hold lock mechanism which can effectively improve work site safety.3, In-depth study of existing inspection methods and power industry standards, and carry out resistance inspection, electric field inspection, visual inspection, hydrophobic inspection at the same time. On this basis, we propose a method for inspect insulator string of multi-sensor fusion technique to achieve a comprehensive evaluation of the performance of insulators. This method can fully reflect the insulator state, reducing the probability of false judgment.4, Improve the robot control system. We achieved remote control, remote video real-time transmission, storage and analysis of measured values and so on. Through the study of electromagnetic interference level of voltage UHV 1000kV, we proposed multi-robot control housing shielding, optical isolation circuit interfaces, control systems and robotics use the same GND. Eventually we successfully overcome the problem of electromagnetic interference.Through a lot of high-voltage experiments and live-line application proved that the robot can carry out resistance inspection, electric field inspection, visual inspection, hydrophobic inspection at highest voltage levels of 1000kV, and judge insulator state according to test results. The application of insulator inspect robot improve the efficiency and accuracy of inspect the insulator strings, reducing the labor intensity, Improved the stability and reliability of the power grid, and promote the development of robotics and intelligent power grid construction.