A survey of applied robotics for tree pruning near overhead power lines

Abstract

This paper presents a review of several robotic tools applied to the activity of pruning near power distribution lines. Power utilities prune trees to minimize the tree-caused power outages, because they are the greatest single cause of outages for power utilities in overhead distribution systems. Pruning trees around overhead power lines is considered a dangerous task due to many factors such as the risk of fall, electrical shock, accidents with the pruning tools and insect attack. Therefore robotic systems may provide a significant increase not only in productivity but also may provide a safe environment to perform the task. The article discusses both airborne and ground-based robots. Since most existing works in the literature are related to rural areas, this paper discusses some requirements to enable this kind of technology in urban areas.