Power transmission line live working robots are important equipment and useful exploration to ensure the reliable operation of high-voltage lines and they are the development trend to realizing intelligent automation power system operation and maintenance management. At present, most robots adapt lithium battery power supply and can be hoisted on line. The robot online endurance operation time is closely related to the system energy consumption. When the robot electricity of battery is insufficient, it needs to be charged offline. In order to reduce the frequency of robot hoisted on and off line as much as possible and improve the robot battery life time after it has been online, this has become a key technology which needs to be solved urgently. It is of great theoretical significance and practical application value to promote the robot overall operation efficiency. Based on the above, this paper establishes double different types manipulator energy consumption models for high-voltage transmission line damper replacement operation and drainage plate maintenance operation, through analysis and synthesis, a general energy consumption model for different tasks have been abstracted and an objective function for optimizing the robot manipulator motion energy consumption have been constructed based on the robot dynamics, thereby, GA(genetic algorithm) has been adapted, through selecting appropriate algorithm parameters, the optimal manipulator energy consumption has been solved and then it can be substituted back to the manipulator energy consumption model so as to obtain the optimal joint energy consumption motion function, based on the optimal energy consumption results, the optimal robot energy consumption motion planning has been carried out, according to the MATLAB simulation results, the energy consumption of the optimized trajectory is significantly lower than before, which can effectively reduce the frequency the robot hoisted online and offline, so as to improve the robot operation overall efficiency, at the same time, the optimal energy consumption trajectory planning method has strong versatility for different operation tasks. Finally, based on the optimal energy consumption trajectory planning, the robot drainage board tightening and damper replacement operation experiments on 220 kV power lines which verified the effectiveness and engineering practicability of the proposed method.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to solve the key technical problems of the practical application of electric robots. The UHV multi-split transmission line power cable operation robot is an important equipment to ensure the reliable operation of high voltage lines and is a useful exploration to realize high-quality power transmission. As the robot system platform equipment mature and operation environment gradually become more complex, the double arm coordination motion control in extreme environment becomes one of the main bottleneck for its practical in power system. Design/methodology/approach This paper summarizes the key technologies related to power cable robots, and aims at key technical indicators such as operation reliability, operation efficiency and operation quality in the robot’s practical process. The dynamic evolution mechanism of the robot’s mechanical configuration, the multi-physics information fusion algorithm in extreme environments, the robot’s autonomous positioning and its error compensation control, the robot’s robust motion control in extreme environments and the dual-arm force-position hybrid coordination control and the dynamic distribution and elimination mechanism of internal forces in the closed chain between robots and operating objects, all the research methods and solutions of the key technologies are proposed, respectively. Findings Finally, a new control architecture for power cable robots in the background of the Ubiquitous Power Internet of Things is proposed so as to manage the operation and maintenance of electric power systems. The above key technologies are a new exploration of the operation and maintenance management of EHV (Extra High Voltage) multi-split transmission lines which have laid a solid theoretical foundation for the power cable robot. Originality/value High voltage transmission line is the main channel of power transmission. It is an important means to improve the integration of operation and maintenance management of power system to use robot instead of manual inspection and maintenance of power line, in the promotion and application of electric robot. The authors pay attention to the practicability, and the breakthrough of key technologies of robot is the premise of the practicability of robot. In this paper, the robot operation and control in multi-task and complex scenes are studied. The research and implementation of the main key technologies, such as the dynamic evolution mechanism of robot configuration, the coupling and fusion law of multi physical fields in the extreme electric power environment, the autonomous positioning control of manipulator, the robust control of robot in the super electromagnetic field environment and the cooperative operation control of multi manipulator, are discussed.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to improve the operation and maintenance intelligence of power systems, and summarize the transmission line robots and their key technologies. High-voltage power cables are important channels for power transmission systems. Their special geographical environment and harsh natural environment can lead to many different faults. At present, such special operations in dangerous and harsh environments are performed manually, which have not only high labor intensity and low work efficiency but also great personal safety risks. Design/methodology/approach For maintenance works that are far away from the tower, power outages are required. With the increasing evaluation of transmission quality and operational safety, and the urgent need for automation and operation of modern power systems, the contradiction between this manual operation and modern high-quality power transmission has become increasingly prominent. An effective method to replace the manual maintenance work is to use the mobile robot to carry the operation manipulator and its end tool, that is, the live maintenance robot. Findings Some achievements have been made in the key technologies of live maintenance robots, the work to be done to meet the basic requirements of complex and changeable line environment and practical application. Based on the existing research results of live overhaul robot, the follow-up research will focus on the practical application needs and the frontier of scientific and technological development, and truly realize the human–machine integration between live overhaul robot–human working environment. Only in this way can the robot better serve the operation and maintenance of the power system. Originality/value This paper reviews the system platform, operation function, structural characteristics and key technologies involved in the power cable robot, and the combination of live maintenance robots and modern high-tech such as big data and cloud computing is also given, and finally, the future development direction of the special operation robot is pointed out.

In complex smart grid, the power maintenance robot is important equipment to ensure the reliable operation of high-voltage lines and it is a useful exploration to realize high-quality power transmission. In view of the increasingly prominent contradiction between the robot single operation function and the diversification of power grid maintenance operations, additional with the robot weak autonomous operation and intelligent behavior ability, this paper proposes a new configuration of a reconfigurable power robot with terminal functions and its autonomous operation behavior control method for the three typical tasks which are the high-voltage transmission line insulators, drainage plates, and dampers maintenance. Through the analysis and planning of the robot operation behavior, the robot finite state machine (FSM) model in the three operation states has been established. Through the introduction of the state transfer function in the FSM, the automatic switching control between the robot key operation states can be realized, and the robot motion planning can be optimized. The movement and working flow of the robot improve the robot operation intelligence and operation efficiency. Based on this, the robot autonomous operation control system has been designed and the robot physical prototype has been developed for three maintenance tasks of insulators, drainage plates, and dampers. Finally, simulation experiments and field operation tests verify the effectiveness and engineering practicability of the proposed method. Compared with traditional manual control, the autonomous behavior control method can significantly improve the robot operational efficiency and operational intelligence. At the same time, the robot multitask function and autonomous behavior control under different tasks can be realized and the method has strong versatility for different task objects and different line environments. The research and its promotion have important theoretical significance and practical application value for the power system operation and maintenance integration management.

In response to the problems of high labor intensity, high risk, and poor reliability of artificial live working, a four-wheel-driven spacer bar replacement mobile operation robot has been designed and developed in this paper, and the corresponding kinematic and dynamics model have been established, based on the established double models, the kinematics and dynamics numerical analysis can be realized through INVENTOR and ADAMS, respectively, based on the established kinematics and dynamics models . The results show that the simulation value of the robot joint displacement, velocity, acceleration, and joint force can be able to meet the requirements of kinematic and dynamic constraints during the robot operation. The robot prototype can meet the requirement of dual-split robot working space and the operation joint force control, which not only extend the robot adaptability to the multisplit lines heterogeneous operation environment but also provide an important theoretical technical support for the exploit of the robot physical prototype. Through the robot kinematics and dynamics analysis, the robot mechanical structure parameters and electrical control parameters have been effectively optimized. The weight and cost of the robot have been reduced by 12% and 15% compared to the existed studies. Finally, the robot principle prototype mobile platform has been developed, and the correctness of robot kinematics and dynamics simulation analysis has been verified through the robot principle prototype mobile platform.