Just how many people lose their lives worldwide while inspecting the high voltage power-lines? Searching an answer beyond the surveys would only mean calling upon an endless debate, but that’ll be enough to tell how dangerous the job is. HiBOT, a Tokyo based company in collaboration with Japan’s Kansai Electric Power Co. has been developing a robotic solution to this problem. The daredevil bot, Expliner they’ve created is the first of its kind that’ll roll over live cables to inspect them, saving the human linesmen from risking their lives.
The Expliner is designed like a four-wheeled cable car to roll over the upper pair of bundled power lines using a manipulator arm on side for balance. Embedded with four set of laser sensors and high-def camera, the bot efficiently monitors the entire cable surface for faults etc.
The gripper arm is also used to shift the bot’s center of gravity which helps it raise the wheels on the front and rear axle to negotiate obstacles. In case the obstacle on the line is more difficult, then the Expliner has to be brought down and then installed back up across the hindrance. The Expliner has been tested on live wires up to 500 kilovolts in Japan, and the results have successful, therefore the maker’s believe they can get the robot up in operation by early next year.
Via: Spectrum IEEE
