Development of UAV System for Autonomous Power Line Inspection

This paper presents a new UAV system for autonomous inspection of electrical energy transmission and distribution networks. The system is based on a quadrotor helicopter equipped with necessary sensors, control computer realizing the autonomous flight control, and cameras for acquiring images of power transmission towers, ground wire as well transmission wires, insulators, and the vegetation under the power line corridor. The proposed inspection method, hardware construction, and developed control software are described in this paper. Experimental results show well the capabilities and the usability of the proposed inspection system. As far as the authors are concerned such a system does not yet exists.