Design and Development of a Flying Object for Inspection and Cleaning of Distribution Power Lines in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Inspection, detection and cleaning are essential for the maintenance of distribution power lines (DPL). Developed countries use unmanned automated vehicles (UAVs) for this purpose. Helicopter usage is efficient but costly and ineffective for developing countries. Manual inspection and cleaning is the current method used in Sri Lanka. Most research on UAVs in the developing world are at experimental level; practical appliances have been slightly neglected. It is possible to use UAVs to inspect, detect and rectify the issues occur in DPLs in Sri Lanka. This can reduce costs, risks and logistic problems of manual inspection and cleaning. Aim of this project was to design and develop an Unmanned Automated Flying Object (with a Robot Arm) and test its’ applicability in inspection and cleaning of DPLs in Sri Lankan context. This paper describes the design and preliminary test results of flying, video transmitting and receiving performances of the Quadcopter. Design of the system architecture of the Quadcopter encompasses a flight control system, Xbee module, inspection camera and a robot arm. The flight control system was tested by practical demonstration. Flying route was recorded from the ground station. The inspection system was tested by visual images transmitted to the ground station. The Quadcopter demonstrated safe flying. Minor errors caused in inspection and detecting may be due to sudden winds, poor GPS signals or electromagnetic interference. Testing of the robot arm is still underway. Upon completion of the experiment this Quadcopter can be used in Sri Lanka to detect contaminations and clean DPLs.