Desenvolvimento de um modelo conceitual de um robô para inspeção e intervenção em linhas de distribuição de energia elétrica

Abstract

In order to use mobile robots for inspection tasks of power distribution lines and consequently to increase the safety and efficiency of these operations, a study was carried out on the robotic systems used for the inspection of power transmission and distribution lines. For that, a classification was adopted that separates the robots according to the locomotion system. This generated four different classes: ground robots, sliding/climbing robots, aerial robots and hybrid robots. When analyzing the four classes, it was observed that the sliding/climbing robots have greater autonomy and more simplified mechanisms than the other robots. These types of robots are able to interact with the obstacles found in the workspace without creating large contact forces. Considering the advantages offered by sliding/climbing robots, this work presents the study and conceptual design of a new sliding/climbing robot for inspection of power distribution lines with emphasis on motion planning to overcome obstacles. This robotic system is capable of moving over the power distribution lines, which can easily overcome obstacles such as insulators present in these installations due to its kinematic motion planning of collision avoidance. This approach avoids obstacles by the adoption of a sequential motion planning, making the robot’s articulated suspensions to retract when it is close to the obstacle and to distend after it passes over it. This kind of movement is controlled by a geometric motion planning method which is performed by a fifth order polynomial interpolation law. The kinematic equations were deduced and then the motion planning methodology was discussed and optimized. The kinematic modeling uses the screw-based jacobian method in combination with virtual kinematic chains which allows the use of the Kirchhoff-Davies method, thus obtaining the inverse kinematic model of the sliding/climbing robot. Finally, some simulations were carried out and the simulation results showed the potential use of this technique to cope with the sliding/climbing robots.