Development of robot mechanism for inspection of live-line suspension insulator string in 345kV power lines

A new inspection robot mechanism for live-line suspension insulator strings was developed to prevent an insulator failure in power transmission lines. By adopting a wheel-leg moving mechanism, the robot structure becomes very simple, small-sized and lightweight. In addition, this mechanism is superior in insulation to the existing ones, because the number of the insulators contacted by the mechanism is only one. Through experiments, we confirmed its effectiveness.