Parameters Optimization of UAV for Insulator Inspection on Power Transmission Line

In recent years, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology has been widely used in power transmission line inspection. UAV operating parameters determine the quality of the acquired insulator image, which directly affects the efficiency of transmission line inspection. Regarding the inspection of ceramic insulators, this work establishes a three-dimensional (3D) model of ceramic insulators, and simulates the changes in shooting distance, angle, and height of the UAV through three geometric transformations: rotation, translation, and scaling. The influence of those three UAV operating parameters (the shooting distance, angle, and height) on the integrity of the ce-ramic insulator steel cap is studied. In the infrared zero value detection of 110kV ceramic insulators, It is found that the best setting for obtaining the maximum steel cap area is: shooting distance of 3–7 meters, shooting height of 1 meter below the center of the insulator string, and a shooting depression angle of 0°. The UAV operating parameters setting method proposed in this paper will provide theoretical and practical basis for the in-depth intelligent inspection of transmission line insulators.