Technology and Development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

HIMALAYAL - SHANGHAI - CHINA

I. Industrial Background    

China has undergone fast development of power grid construction, topping the world. To date, six trans-provincial power grids have been established. The total length of transmission line exceeds 1.15m Km and 500kV and above transmission lines are mainly depended on to transmit the electric power in all areas. The Chinese vast territory and complex terrains combined with changeable weather make it difficult to construct power grid and UHV transmission line across the provinces. It cannot meet the requirements of high efficiency and fastness and achieve good effect only by relying on available inspection methods and routine tests. 

The safe and stable running of overhead transmission line is related to the benefit of the whole power grid. The available treatment of inspection images are mostly based on human interpretation to demarcate target parts and classify the defects. However, the interpretation is characterized by large labor intensity and low working efficiency. Because one time inspection can obtain large quantities of images, the analysis report cannot be given in time through the method. There is no uniform interpretation evaluation and easily affected by personal subjective factors. The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can assist us to perform inspection task well so that it is widely accepted and applied by electric companies.     

II. Technical Standards 

In the electric industry, the drone is mainly used to inspect overhead transmission lines. Technical standards issued by different organizations are listed below:

Q/GDW11383-2015 Configuration Guide of UAV Inspection System for Overhead Transmission Line - State Grid Technical Code of UAV Inspection Optoelectric Pod for Overhead Transmission Line - China Southern Power Grid 
DL/T1482-2015 Technical Guide of UAV Inspection for Overhead Transmission Line - China Electricity Council   

III. Application Analysis 

1. Fault  detection     
 
   
 

2. Obstacle elimination      
 
   
 

3. Precise measurement of temperature    
 
   

The electric department staff is able to check whether some crucial parts are damaged by means of UAV to ensure the safety of transmission lines and power utilization for residents. Besides normal and special inspection, the UAV can also be used to detect faults after power grid disaster.    

The mapping system of UAV has many advantages, including real-time, low costs, quick response and high flexibility. Acquisition of optical image, terrain image and power transmission line at low altitude image guarantees that we can obtain the data in an efficient manner, but reduces the effect of the environment on data acquisition and exploration in many aspects. The effective analysis of data collected by UAV can make the most of available resources, rationalize the line trends and optimize transmission line route.