Research on a novel maintenance robot for power transmission lines

The slip vibration damper on power transmission lines (PTLs), which is caused by aeolian vibration, material aging and some outside interference, is a serious fault in power grid. The maintenance task, with high working intensity and risk, is generally completed on the high voltage live line by specially trained workers. This paper presents the development of a novel mobile robot aiming at retrieving slip vibration dampers in power grid. The mobile robot with an operation platform can adapt to uncertain postures of the vibration damper, though the posture varies in a random way within a certain range. After approaching the fault location, the robot first disassembles the connection clamps of the loose vibration damper with specialized tools, and then the vibration damper is transported to the original position and assembled by virtue of a lifter and a revolute sleeve barrel. With the consideration of practical application, safety and performance on maintenance, the robot prototype has been developed. The inverse kinematics with geometrical constraints has been deduced. Robot experiments on mock-up lines have been carried out and the results are shown in this paper.