LineDrone Technology: Landing an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle on a Power Line

This paper presents the design of a multirotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capable of landing semiautomatically on a power line while carrying a payload. The vehicle then rolls along the line to perform an inspection. Special attention is given to the vehicle's onboard vision system, which consists of a monocular camera and LiDAR used together to compute the pose of the vehicle relative to the power line. Landing assistance is provided to the pilot by a position-based visual controller that aligns and keeps the vehicle centered along the power line. The pilot remains in control of vertical and longitudinal movement during descent. The proposed approach was tested on a full-scale test line and shows promise for future applications of high value to the electric industry such as non-destructive testing of power transmission lines.