Design of a transmission line monitoring solution for an unmanned quadcopter

Abstract

Eskom owns thousands of kilometres of transmission lines that need to be inspected in order to plan maintenance. Current methods of inspection are costly and ineffective and could pose safety risks. Systems already developed for inspection purposes do not meet the specifications as determined by Eskom for transmission line inspection. A solution is proposed by the design and construction of a monitoring system consisting of a single board computer (SBC), USB video and infrared cameras, and a GPS unit. The system is attached to a quadcopter that flies along the transmission line to collect data. Software is developed that stream the video and GPS data to a monitoring station and provide logging capability