Abstract
Electrical utility companies regularly inspect their power line networks to guarantee efficiency and reliability in energy transmission and distribution. However, the power lines inspection processes are expensive and time demanding, requiring robotized solutions to become feasible. A key issue in developing power line inspection robots is their energy efficiency, as they are required to operate for as long as possible. This work aims to reduce an inspection robot’s energy consumption by optimizing the mechanical efficiency of its gear reducer’s traction motor. The robot’s gear reducer is a planetary gear train whose efficiency is modeled via Davies’ method. The planetary gear train efficiency is optimized considering volume, size, and allowable stress constraints. The impact of the performance of the original and the optimized gearboxes in the batteries’ final SOC is evaluated, and it is verified that the gearbox efficiency slightly impacts the robot’s consumption.
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Acknowledgement
The R&D project that made this work possible was entitled “Development of a Robotized System for Inspection of Electricity Distribution Lines” (05697-0317/2017), regulated by ANEEL (“Agência Nacional de Energia Elétrica”) and financed by the Centrais Elétricas de Santa Catarina S.A. (Celesc), the electrical utility company for the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. Thanks are due to Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior—Brasil (CAPES) and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for partial financial support.
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de Souza, M.B., Fernandes, G.Q., Laus, L.P., Carboni, A.P., Martins, D. (2024). Efficiency Optimization of the Gear Reducer of an Overhead Power Line Inspection Robot. In: Youssef, E.S.E., Tokhi, M.O., Silva, M.F., Rincon, L.M. (eds) Synergetic Cooperation between Robots and Humans. CLAWAR 2023. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 811. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-47272-5_1
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