Hi, We are studying the possibilities of using UAVs (drones) for power line inspection. Our requirement in this regard will be as follows, 1) visually inspect the equipments installed in the power line and get clear footage. Special application in this regard would be Insulator inspection where it is necessary to see whether insulators are failed, cracked or damaged 2) autonomous flight on a given path to see the vegetation in power distribution line (to see if trees are coming close to the line) - some commercial drones has the way-point navigation facility but not sure if they can detect obstacles in a given path The intention is of above is the hot line application, where you don't need to shut your power line and do visual inspections while supply is on. This can save time, reduce downtime and increase safety of workers. I have noted that most of the commercial suppliers manufactures are not recommending to fly UAVs near power lines. Hence it is doubtful if commercial drones can cater this type of application. However there can be experts who has knowledge/information or can give us some guidance on this as this is a specific application (not just areal photography) Looking for some advice on this Regards, Asela
to give some more idea on this requirement, we have tested something like below however we feel that we need something specifically designed to use with power lines to tackle the presence of high electromagnetic interference at power lines.
This is honestly way our of our ball park - because we are a hobbyist site tailored more toward beginner and intermediate flyers. However, the product category you mentioned is being actively exploited by a number of companies and doing some google should lead you to good examples: http://www.microdrones.com/en/applications/areas-of-application/inspection/ Some smaller companies and individuals are using stock quadcopter (Phantoms, etc.) for small single-line inspection through large properties, etc. - but that's a different story. Also, in the USA you probably have problems with licensing for such uses....
The Biggest reason not to fly near power lines is the electromagnetic field that is near the power line. If you have ever seen how helicopters do this you would see why this would either destroy the UAV or worse.........see this At about 1:00 into the video you can see the arc that is jumping from the lines to the wand the operator is holding, think a small UAV would survive that? Your request for autonomous flight to do this is not reasonable as most GPS units cannot maintain a good enough fix (any where form military grade GPS of + / - a few feet to civilian grad GPS being as bad as + / - 300 feet). Add in wind or other forces.........recipe for disaster.
