Malle, Nicolaj Haarhøj (University of Southern Denmark), Nyboe, Frederik Falk (University of Southern Denmark), Ebeid, Emad Samuel Malki (University of Southern Denmark)

Survey and Evaluation of Sensors for Overhead Cable Detection Using UAVs

Scheduled for presentation during the Regular Session "Sensor Fusion II" (WeB4), Wednesday, June 16, 2021, 15:00−15:20, Naoussa

2021 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), June 15-18, 2021, Athens, Greece

This information is tentative and subject to change. Compiled on April 25, 2024

Abstract

Inspecting overhead cables using autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is an affordable and promising future solution for providing a clear picture of the energy infrastructure. However, most of today’s UAVs for power line inspection are designed to use the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) to follow the power pylons which compromises the detection accuracy. In this paper, we provide an overview of the current state-of-the-art in sensors that can be used to remotely detect power lines using UAVs. The work compares 20+ low-cost, low-power, and light-weight sensors. The performance of 6 different kinds of sensors is evaluated thoroughly in a real outdoor power line test setup using a custom UAV. The sensor data is obtained and analyzed using Robot Operating System (ROS) and is provided openly.