Power Line Simulation for Safety Distance Detection Using Point Clouds

Abstract

Airborne LiDAR has been adopted as a powerful survey tool for overhead power transmission line (TL) cruising so that the operator can quickly search for, locate and eliminate the risk objects at the power line corridor scene. However, the TLs are moving objects, which positions are dynamically affected by working conditions (e.g. temperature variation, wind-induced conductor motion) while they are acquired by airborne LiDAR. The point clouds data acquired by airborne LiDAR only reflect the geometric relationship between the TL and its surrounding objects at the transient moment of the data acquisition. In order to overcome the shortcomings of the instantaneously acquired laser scanning data, this paper presents an approach for simulating the dynamic TL shape under different working conditions based on mechanical computation of the overhead line. The proposed approach considers the tension variation of TL resulting from weather conditions, such as temperature, wind and ice, while simulates TL sag curve using the parabolic catenary equation combined with the tension. A performance evaluation was conducted over the TLs data with multiple voltage levels. Experiments results show that the proposed approach is effective for simulating the 3D shape of TL under different working conditions. The simulation error achieved was less than 0.65m and the maximum Diff-Ratio was about 1.57%. This provides a scientifically sound predicting and modeling approach for TL risk assessment and warning along the corridor.INDEX TERMS airborne laser scanning, remote sensing, power line modeling, risk management, transmission line simulation This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication.

A survey of sag monitoring methods for power grid transmission lines

“…This requires longer flights, which would increase the cost of the aerial methods. In [12], the authors simulated the dynamic positions of power lines under different weather conditions using point clouds based on mechanical computation. They considered the tension variation of lines due to weather conditions, such as temperature, wind, ice, and then simulated the line sag curve using the parabolic equation from tension.…”

Mobile LiDAR-based Real-time Identification of Transmission Lines

“…Moreover, the length of power lines between pylons is typically very large. Long-term similar power lines images can easily lead to mismatches between views (Zhang et al, 2020).…”

Advanced Power Line Diagnostics Using Point Cloud Data—Possible Applications and Limits

“…However, the complexity of the digital power line model acquired using ALS makes it possible to recalculate the conductor shape to any desired operation scenario, so the network operator can perform a complex safety evaluation of the power line in the wide range of scenarios, including climatic and operational extremes. The possibilities of the recalculation of the conductor shape to different atmospheric and operating conditions, based on the ALS data, are presented in [30].…”

“…However, the accuracy of such re-calculation is significantly affected by several factors, including point cloud accuracy, conductor temperature measurement/estimation accuracy and deviation of mechanical properties of conductors from declared values [31][32][33][34]. Understanding how these individual input inaccuracies affect the resulting accuracy of the recalculated conductor shapes is crucial for assessing the applicability of the method proposed in [30] (and, of course, all other possible applications based on solving of the conductor state equation and its derivatives). However (according to the best knowledge of authors), such analysis is not available in the literature.…”