Project Objective:
The main goal of the project is to:
- • Monitoring the High-Power Transmission Lines.
• Sag Estimation.
• Wire breaks and Insulators faults.
• Corrosion under Insulators and rust metals.
Socio-economic Benefits:
For the safe operation of power lines, there should be regular checking of components of the line to detect if there is any fault that different weather conditions can cause, for example, corrosion, breakage, mechanical damage, and most important, dust and pollution on insulator which causes contaminant layer results in damaging of insulator.
Commonly, the Inspection of a transmission line is mostly conducted manually by foot patrol or helicopters, which is not very efficient and time-consuming, expensive, and presents an unknown danger to the inspection team. When these lines cross rivers, forests, and the higher areas that are unreachable for manual Inspection, manual Inspection of these lines becomes very difficult. So it is essential to more economical, effective and efficient ways for transmission line inspection. In this project, we are using an unmanned aerial vehicle that is a drone. It becomes effortless and risk-free to conduct the Inspection of a transmission line across the areas mentioned above by connecting a camera to the UAV. This drone will give us a live video of the transmission line and images for later usage. It gives us a detailed view of the components of the transmission line and its surroundings.
Project Methodology:
We designed the system as a complete unmanned aerial system for power line inspection. The Quad-copter consists of DJI NAZA-M LITE flight controller, which is the brain of a drone, which have a built-in accelerometer, gyroscope, and barometer sensors helps quad for stable flight. A 1000KV (1000RPM/V) BLDC motors are powerful enough to lift the weight of frame and attached accessories. The transmitter transmits a signal and the receivers receives it. The flight controller is capable of receiving signals from receiver, acknowledge it and send command to electronic speed controller (ESC). The ESC's adjust the speed of Brushless DC Motors linked with it, by adjusting the output voltages.
Pitch:
Pitch is the movement of quad-copter either forward and backward. Forward Pitch is achieved by pushing the aileron stick forward, which makes the quad-copter tilt and move forward, away from you. Backward pitch is achieved by moving the aileron stick back- wards(towards you), making the quad-copter, come closer to us.
Roll:
Roll is making the quad-copter fly side-ward, either to left or right. Roll is controlled with the aileron stick, making it move left of right, if you move the aileron stick to the left, the quad-copter will fly left, if you move the aileron stick to right, the quad-copter will fly right.
Yaw:
Yaw is the deviation/Rotating the head of the quad-copter either to right or left, Yaw can be controlled through the throttle stick, also called rudder, making it to rotate either to the left or right. (Or) Yaw is simply defined as the rotation of a UAV with respect to the center axis. If you were looking down on a drone from above, yaw refers to the movement of the drone clockwise or counter clockwise.
Modes of Operation:
1.Manual mode:
In manual mode, the drone is controlled by the user or the pilot through a transmitter having the line of sight.
2.Hold altitude mode:
It works in manual mode, If the user wants the drone to maintain its altitude and location , this flight mode will be used. In this flight mode the drone will be at manual flight mode and it will maintain its altitude and location using GPS data.
3.RTL mode:
In case of any emergency like battery low or signal loss, return to launch mode (RTL) is set to the drone by transmitter which will fly the drone back to its original position from where it took off.
Project Outcome:
After getting all the data(pictures, video) from the camera is then saved in the SD card for later use. During the Inspection we will also be getting live video through the camera installed. It gives us a detailed view of the components of the transmission line and its surroundings.
