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Autonomous Removing Foreign Objects for Power Transmission Line by Using a Vision-Guided Unmanned Aerial Manipulator

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Abstract

This paper considers a problem that visual servo control for an aerial manipulator removes foreign objects of power transmission lines. A position-based visual servoing (PBVS) combing a foreign objects locating method based on the point cloud with a hierarchical task-priority control method is employed to drive the aerial manipulator to remove the foreign object. Firstly, the RGB-D camera mounted on the drone obtains the point cloud of the environment, and the foreign object will be localized by the detection and localization algorithm. Then, a new visual servo error is proposed to decouple linear speed and angular speed, allowing the aerial manipulator to grasp accurately in the dangerous environment. In addition, the redundant characteristics of the aerial manipulator will be fully used by the hierarchical task priority control scheme. Finally, experimental results of a drone equipped with a 4-DOF delta manipulator removing foreign objects of power transmission line are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the control method.

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Funding

This work was supported by [Postdoctoral Research Foundation of China](Grant numbers [2020M682555] and [BX20200122]). The research leading to these results received funding from [Education and Scientific Research Project of Hunan] under Grant Agreement No [20C0083], Key R & D plan of Hunan Province under Grant Agreement No [2020SK3007] and Changsha Science and Technology Plan under Grant Agreement No [kh2003026].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Engineering Training Center, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha, 410114, China

    Ling Li

  2. College of Electrical and Information Engineering, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha, 410114, China

    Tianlin Zhang, Hongwen Li, Shaosheng Fan & Yijia Cao

  3. College of Electrical and Information Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China

    Hang Zhong & Hui Zhang

Authors
  1. Ling Li
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  2. Tianlin Zhang
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  3. Hang Zhong
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  4. Hongwen Li
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  5. Hui Zhang
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  6. Shaosheng Fan
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  7. Yijia Cao
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Mr. Tianlin Zhang, Mr. Hongwen Li. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Mr. Tianlin Zhang and Ms. Ling Li. All authors read and approved the manuscript. The list of authors is the following:

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Correspondence to Hang Zhong.

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Li, L., Zhang, T., Zhong, H. et al. Autonomous Removing Foreign Objects for Power Transmission Line by Using a Vision-Guided Unmanned Aerial Manipulator. J Intell Robot Syst 103, 23 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-021-01482-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-021-01482-3

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