Climbing and pole line hardware installation robot for construction of distribution lines

Abstract

This paper presents a new robot prototype for the construction of Hydro-Québec's overhead distribution lines. It details the main sub-systems of the robot, such as the climbing system (for climbing poles), the crossarm manipulation system (which handles crossarms and selects tools for drilling holes and inserting bolts), and the bolting system (for fixing crossarms and braces on poles). The robot is made to ascend and descend a pole by teleoperation, and the installation of a pre-assembled crossarm (with brace, pins, insulators and clamps) at the top of a 40-foot pole is performed in full automatic mode. Tests have demonstrated the efficiency of this robotized construction method in installing the line hardware of a three-phase distribution line on a 40-foot pole in 25 minutes.

Design of a micro pole-climbing robot

“…Assuming q 1 is known and setting m ¼ (5) and (6) can be obtained by equation (4). Equation 7can be obtained by equations (3) and (4) square sum.…”

“…4 A robot prototype was developed to construct overhead distribution lines in Quebec hydropower stations. 5 The pole-climbing robot Pobot V2 was based on the innovative principle of rolling self-locking 8 ; it uses no energy to maintain itself at a given altitude. There are also a few prototype robots for truss climbing.…”

“…Aerial work to climb poles, [1][2][3][4][5] trees, 6,7 or trusses [8][9][10] can result in worker injuries 11,12 due to human kinematic and spatial limitations. Pole-climbing robots are therefore increasingly wanted to carry out high-risk tasks for human beings.…”

“…There are many studies about pole-climbing robots with significant achievements. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] Autonomous climbing is a necessity for these robots as the operators may not see the next target to be grasped by the robots all the times.…”

The Dynamic Coupling Analysis for All-Wheel-Drive Climbing Robot Based on Safety Recovery Mechanism Model

“…Furthermore, Mahmoud et al designed an oil and gas pipeline climbing robot to detect bent pipelines and T-shaped oil and gas pipelines [9]. Allan et al developed a wheeled bar climbing robot which is capable of climbing along a straight bar with heavy payloads [10]. Li Nan et al designed a climbing robot that can move along the bar and rotate around it [11].…”