The Development of a Robotic System for Maintenance and Inspection of Power Lines

Abstract

This paper describes preliminary studies on a prototype robot for the inspection/maintenance of electrical power lines. Faulty insulators or abnormal objects can be detected before causing a failure in the distribution of electrical energy. The robot uses a statically stable variation of the brachistochrone motion to move along the power lines and overcome the standard obstacles present in the lines. The paper presents the kinematics and preliminary simulation results on the dynamics and control of the robot. 1