SENSYN ROBOTICS Inc. and Chubu Electric Power Grid Co., Inc. have been jointly developing an AI for drones to automatically detect abnormalities in power transmission facilities.
The companies have newly developed an AI to detect tower bolt dropout and rust, as well as to expand the scope of real-time abnormality detection. The partners are now introducing this AI for the inspection of transmission facilities owned by Chubu Electric Power Grid.
The jointly developed automatic inspection technology for power transmission facilities is set to be implemented in ‘POWER GRID Check,’ a business application specialized for maintenance work on overhead power transmission facilities.
This technology enables automatic and high-quality inspection and imaging of facilities without the need for advanced piloting skills.
By developing an AI that detects abnormalities through image analysis and implementing it in ‘POWER GRID Check,’ it has become possible to automatically perform all inspection tasks. This includes image acquisition by the drone to the determination of abnormalities, saving time and reducing the risk of user error.
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Real-Time Anomaly Detection
The new AI detects abnormalities such as broken or melted wires and damaged or chipped insulators in real time, based on live stream images from drones transmitted to mobile devices.
The technology also detects in real time the loss of a dead weight of a ‘damper’ *1 or the detachment of a gripping part of a ‘spacer’ *2, which are accessories of electric wires.
*1 A device to suppress vibration and snow growth on electric wires.
*2 A device to keep electric wires at a specified distance from each other.
for Insulators
Steel Tower Bolt Dropout and Rust Detection
Regarding abnormalities related to steel towers, the newly developed AI is capable of detecting ‘bolt’ dropout and steel tower rust.
The AI learns and evaluates by tower type (angle steel tower and pipe steel tower) and by tower paint color (unpainted, rust -proof paint (gray), aviation sign paint (red and white), and environmental paint (brown), so it can detect various types of steel tower anomalies.
For steel tower rust detection, it is also possible to classify the ranks according to the degree of rust.
POWER GRID Check
POWER GRID Check is a transmission equipment inspection application that utilizes drones, based on technology jointly developed by SENSYN ROBOTICS and Chubu Electric Power Grid.
It is characterized by its ability to automatically inspect transmission towers (supports and insulators) and transmission lines (ground wires and power lines) in one operation.
The application ensures a safe distance between the drone and the equipment while automated performing flights to collect consistent data, allowing workers without specialized knowledge of drones to easily conduct transmission line inspections.
Future Operations
The newly developed AI will be implemented into POWER GRID Check during the 2024 fiscal year, with field operations set to begin.
The results of abnormality detection will be highlighted and viewable within POWER GRID Check. Since the developed AI models require continuous learning to improve accuracy, the companies will build a scheme to enhance AI performance through re-learning and algorithm selection based on user feedback.
Additionally, the partners are conducting joint research and development with the goal of applying this technology to substation equipment, and will continue to develop the application with the aim of applying it across the general power transmission and distribution sector.
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