Inexpensive, Lightweight Method of Detecting Coronas with UAVs

Advances in technology have allowed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to be utilized as tools in the power industry. Power grids are routinely inspected to maintain a reliable power supply. When maintaining transmission lines, UAVs are primarily deployed for visual inspection, but there is a need for ultraviolet (UV) inspections for the purpose of detecting high voltage coronas. Coronas are potential indicators of problems in high voltage conductors or insulating structures. Ultraviolet cameras offer long range and high sensitivity to the weak photon flux of high voltage coronas. The size, weight, and cost of UV cameras limit their use in UAV applications. Compact narrow band sensors do not have these limitations.The range of the UV sensor is too short for flyby inspections with a UAV, so methods of augmentation were researched. A shallow parabolic reflector was developed to enhance the range of a narrow band UV detector for the purpose of UAV based autonomous high voltage line inspection. With safer standoff distances, the UV sensor studied, in combination with a parabolic reflector, exhibits potential for autonomous inspection of high voltage structures for corona detection.