“…Moreover, most of the high-voltage power lines extend to complex environments (e.g., lakes, mountains, and forests), and their distribution is becoming more complicated (e.g., multi-loop and multi-bundle) [9], which are great challenges for the inspection of power lines. With the continuous improvement of hardware and innovative data processing algorithms, various advanced remote sensing data (such as video [1], optical image [10,11], SAR (synthetic aperture radars) [12], thermal image [13], and LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) [1,[7][8][9]) and multitudinous monitoring platforms at different ranges (such as satellite, airborne, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) [14,15], mobile mapping [16,17], and cable inspection robot (CIR) [4,9]) have been introduced into the management of smart grids. Compared with other remotely sensed data, airborne LiDAR technology, which can easily acquire high accuracy and high density 3D point clouds over a large range, has been widely applied to the inspection of transmission lines in recent years.…”