Development of a Mobile Robotic Platform for the Underground Distribution Lines

This paper discusses the work accomplished for the development of a new mobile robotic platform for the Hydro-Quebecpsilas underground power distribution lines. After an overview of few past robotic systems elaborated for the distribution networks, this article details the systems of the mobile robotic platform which seems to be the first in the literature dedicated to the underground distribution lines. We present the vehicle with an articulated chassis selected for this research project to reach the site of an underground vault of the Hydro-Quebecpsilas distribution network. Then, we describe a five-degree-of-freedom hydraulic arm that is assembled on the vehicle and designed to go down in an underground vault. We present the specific tools made for the operation and maintenance of an underground switch. The different tools are handled by a six-degree-of-freedom electric manipulator with integrated electronics especially designed for this project. We discuss the geometrical architecture, the mechanical design, and the kinematic and dynamic simulations of this manipulator. The first experimental tests were successfully performed in November and December 2007 at the Hydro-Quebecpsilas Research Institute site in a simulated vault where the tasks on the underground switch were done in an automatic mode (no teleoperation) supervised by the operator.