ROBTET: a new teleoperated system for live-line maintenance

This paper presents a new teleoperated system for live-line maintenance developed for the IBERDROLA electrical utility. Its aim is to increase the safety and comfort of the workers and the overall efficiency, as well as to reduce labour requirements. Its design is based on other already developed systems but with a new approach. It consists of a pair of hydraulic-driven master-slave teleoperated manipulators, placed on top of an insulated boom, which execute directly on the hot line, the tasks commanded via master arms by an operator on the ground. Telepresence of the operator is accomplished through a 3-D vision system, a multimedia interface and the force-feedback capabilities of the manipulators. This paper describes in detail all these elements, as well as the teleoperation architecture that interface them, with special attention to the telepresence issues which seem to lack in similar systems.