An integrated approach for non-destructive testing of ACSR conductors: Early deployments of robotized sensors

Commonly used methods to inspect power line consist of visual camera, infrared camera, and binoculars. In the recent years, power line robotics has come to play a role for very detailed visual inspections and other tasks. These methods are adequate to detect damage caused by lightning strikes or exterior damages. Nothing is detected that the eyes cannot see. In order to probe under the surface of conductors, inspection methods with a certain degree of penetrating power are required. This paper lists some of the most relevant ACSR's ageing mechanism and proposes applicable sensor technologies to assess them. Then, since mid-term objectives include deploying these sensors via power line mobile robots such as LineScout, integration consideration are discussed. Finally, the paper presents preliminary results obtained with three different types of sensors and shows the current stage of development of NDT technologies aimed at inspecting the core of the ACSR conductors.