Designing an End-to-End UAV System for Insulator Inspection Under Transmission Tower Environments

This paper proposes an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) equipped with a rigid contact module and two supplementary forward-direction motors, designed for the contact-based inspection of porcelain insulators. During the free-flight, this aerial robot is controlled by a geometric tracking controller. When approaching and contacting the insulators, the impedance controller generates enough force to sustain contact by using two forward-direction motors, while the geometric tracking controller maintains its orientation. This platform is validated through simulations, demonstrating its effectiveness in performing contact-based inspection tasks.