A Vision-Based Technique for Ice-Coating Shape Measurement of Transmission Lines Conductor

Icing of overhead transmission lines can affect the safe operation of the power distribution and transmission grid due to the additional weight load of the accumulated ice-coating on transmission line conductors. Analyzing the shape of ice accumulation on transmission line conductors helps promote the calculation of ice thickness and weight. In this paper, we present a system for analyzing the shape of ice accumulation based on two digital cameras and an offline processing algorithm. The two cameras separately acquire an image sequence of the iced conductor from the top view and the front view. Then, an image processing algorithm extracts the conductor contour and measures both the diameters of the iced conductor images captured by the two cameras at the same point. An irregular-shape ice coating accumulation model is established and used to describe the cross-sectional ice coating shape of the accumulated ice on the conductor. Finally, a mathematical model for the ice coating weight is established. The proposed system was tested in laboratory experiments using two digital cameras with good low-temperature resistance. The experimental analysis results show that the average error ratio of the proposed irregular shape ice accumulation model in terms of area and thickness fitting are 0.0398 and 0.0612, respectively. © 2025 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC.