A survey on insulator inspection robots for power transmission lines

Inspection of faulty insulators is an effective and practical way to protect the power transmission lines from accidental power blackouts caused by aging insulators. The traditional manual inspection using a live-line tester is labor-intensive, dangerous, inefficient and inaccurate. This paper presents a review of insulator inspection robots and classifies the robots into three categories based on the locomotion mechanism. The structures and details of some typical robot prototypes are described. Moreover, some vital techniques such as mechanical design, control system and electromagnetic compatibility are discussed. Finally, the developing trends and the application perspective of the insulator inspection robots are presented.