As well as considering a wide range of topics on regulatory matters, UVS International’s RPAS 2013 Conference in Brussels next week will also take a close look at some of the practical applications of civilian use of UAS, in particular, Power line Inspection.Indeed, on Day 1, Geraldo José Adaboof the Technological Institute of Aeronautics, Brazil will deliver his presenation on “Multi-Platform RPAS for Powerline Inspection”
Power line inspection is an essential procedure in the power lines maintenance area, especially thinking on service availability and energy efficiency. Aerial inspection of electric power transmission lines is typically performed using human-piloted helicopters, which is a procedure that is both expensive and prone to accidents taking risks to human beings lives.
The work presents a solution based on Remotely Piloted Aircraft System – RPAS – for inspecting power lines. In this context a R&D Project of a system to be used for performing complete aerial inspection of overhead power lines is being executed by ITA – Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica in Brazil. Special attention is paid to the communication system conception in order to comply with RPAS definition in the context of long endurance operations of the system. It presents a solution based on a Lighter Than Air – LTA – platform in order to extend the communication range beyond line of sight. In addition some aspects related to Brazilian RPAS Regulation progress are briefly presented.
Then, on Thursday morning, Teofilo Vitoria of AIN (Spanish Technological Center), Spain will present: “The Pelicano Project: Powerline Inspection with RPAS”
Aerial overhead power lines inspection carried out by helicopter is a routinely task in the field of transmission lines maintenance. Different airborne visible and infrared imaging sensors (EO/IR) are used. Pictures taken from the helicopter allow the majority of components to be examined. Broken insulators and strands, wear of fittings, defective or loosened spacers and missing or drooping dampers can be detected by this method. In the case of infrared inspection, overheating problems related to false contact, dirtiness or oxidation are identified. These kinds of inspections have showed good efficiency. However risk linked to the operation of the airborne system in power line environment (low altitude near cables) and high cost operation of the whole system makes the transmission system operators to look at other alternatives.
In response to this situation, Red Eléctrica de España (REE), the Spanish Transmission System Operator supported by Aerial Robotics Group of AIN launched in 2003 and called the Pelicano project; it has the objective of demonstra- ting high quality image aerial inspection of overhead power lines by unmanned helicopter. First phase of the project (2003-2006) demonstrated the ability of a small helicopter for precise navigation and video capture of components in the environment of energized overhead power lines. Second phase of the project (2007- 2009) demonstrated the capability of an unmanned helicopter, called UAR-45, of 85 kg MTOW and 1,5 h endurance to carry out inspections of similar quality imaging than obtained by manned helicopters.
Once technical feasibility was demonstrated, a third phase during 2010 about a technical-economical evaluation in a real case of 60 km of a power line was completed with successful results. Finally in 2011 it was launched the final phase of the project about putting in service of the system. During 2011, 340 km were completed obtaining the required information for the correct interpretation and identification of defects.
In summary, REE and AIN have developed a tool for high quality image aerial inspection of overhead power lines by un- manned helicopter, able to cover long distances (up to 5 km, currently) providing an image quality equivalent or superior to that obtained by manned helicopters and at a cost competitive with the current solution.
Immediately following Teófilo, Professor Juan I. Larrauri, of the University of Deusto, Spain will present his research on “Cartographic & Geodetic System to Define RPA Flight Plans & Guide Cameras for Powerline Inspection”.
Abstract: In this paper, we present a cartographic system for a new automatic system in almost real time for overhead power line inspection by Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) that fly at a constant speed of 10 km per hour during all the flight. The main contribution and novelty of this paper is focused on the design and development of an application to automate the overhead power line inspection cartographic report generation.
The environment of a power line inspection by UAV is static and known beforehand, so the cartographic system will determine the position and features of the electrical components to be reviewed and analyzed during the au- tomatic flight inspection. The main purpose of the digital cartographic system is to provide the conversion of geographic information to spatial data. Providing this information to the system will significantly improve the whole inspection system. The output of data contains information about the position of pylons, insulators, roads, streets, railroad lines, rivers, wooded areas, isolated trees and obstacles along the power lines path. Then, during the online inspection the proposed geodetic system analyzes that information to determine which inspection elements will appear in each image to reduce the image processing times.
This paper is structured as follows: the first section briefly introduces the inspection methods of overhead power lines and the use of the cartographic and geodetic systems; the second section describes our proposed system in detail; the third section describes the cartographic system and the fourth one the geodetic system; the fifth section presents and discusses the experimental results; the sixth section presents the conclusions.
For the full programme with abstracts and speakers bio data, click here.
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