Inspecting transmission lines with an unmanned fixed-wings aircraft

With the rapid extention of the electric transmission network, the workload of the inspection of transmission lines increases dramatically. Unmanned fixed-wings aircrafts (UFV), a kind of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), can be applied to transmission line inspection to improve the efficiency. This paper introduces and discusses the application of a UFA to transmission line inspection. The inspection system includes flight platform, wireless communication system and inspection instruments. The main inspection tools are the visible light camera and camcorder. The aim of inspection is to find any device damages and get the information of transmission line corridor. This paper also introduces several inspections in Shandong, China.