一种飞行巡线机器人的设计与实现

针对2019年全国大学生电子设计竞赛中要求设计制作一款四旋翼飞行器的巡线机器人来实现对电力线路进行自动巡检、巡查和巧遇故障时自动拍照存储记录等功能,设计提出了一种基于四旋翼飞行器的巡线机器人的设计方案。采用高性能微控制器TM4C123GH6PM作为巡线机器人的飞控主处理器,为了满足自动巡检任务,在飞控板上增加了视觉Open MV传感器、姿态传感器和超声波模块协同作用来识别线缆、定高和测距。实验结果表明,设计的四旋翼巡线机器人能够在多种飞行速度和无路径规划条件下完成正常的电力线路巡检任务。

Prototype Line Crawler for Power Line Inspection

In South Africa, electricity is supplied through thousands-of-kilometers of overhead power cables, which is owned by Eskom the national energy supplier. Currently monitoring of these overhead power cables are done by means of helicopter inspection flights and foot patrols, which are infrequent and expensive. In this paper, the authors present the design of a prototype power line crawler （inspection robot） for the monitoring of these overhead power lines in South Africa. The designed prototype power line crawler is capable of driving on the wire, balancing on the wire and is capable of maneuvering past certain obstacles found on the overhead power cables. The prototype power line crawler is designed to host a monitoring system that monitors the power line as the inspection robot drives on it. Various experimental tests were performed and are presented in this paper, showing the capability of performing these tasks. This prototype inspection robot ensures a platform for future development in this area.