Vol. 12 No. 6 J. C E N T . SOUTH UNIV. T E C H N O L . Dec.

2005

Article ID: 1005 - 9784(2005)06 - 0726 - 06

Dynamic simulation and experimental study of

inspection robot for high-voltage transmission-line ®
X I A O Xiao-hui( ~j $ ~ N ) ~'2 , W U O o n g - p i n g ( ~ : ~ s ~ ) 2 , DU E($± ~I~)2 , S H I Tie-lin(.~fJ~Y~k) 1
(1. College of Mechanical Science and Engineering,
Huazhong University of Science and T e c h n o l o g y , Wuhan 430074, China;
2. College of Power and Mechanical Engineering, W u h a n U n i v e r s i t y , W u h a n 430072, China)

A b s t r a c t : A mobile robot developed by W u h a n U n i v e r s i t y for f u l l - p a t h hotline inspection o n 220 k V t r a n s m i s s i o n

lines was presented. With 4 rotating joints and 2 translational ones, such robot is capable of traveling along non-
obstacle straight-line segment and surmounting straight-line segment obstacles as well as transferring between two
spans automatically. Lagrange's equations were utilized to derive dynamic equations of all the links, including items
of inertia, coupling inertia, Coriolis acceleration, centripetal acceleration and gravity. And a dynamic response ex-
periment on elemental motions of robot prototype's travelling along non-obstacle straight-line segment and surmoun-
ting obstacles was performed on 220 kV 1 : 1 simulative overhanging transmission-line in laboratory. In addition,
dynamic numerical simulation was conducted in the corresponding condition. Comparison and analysis on results of
experiment and numerical simulation have validated theoretical model and simulation resolution. Therefore, the dy-
namic model formed hereunder can be used for the study of robot control.
Key words: inspection robot; transmission-line~ dynamic modeling; numerical simulation; dynamic experiment
CLC number: TP242; TH113 Document code: A

1 INTRODUCTION in developing inspection robot in 1997, and Shan-

Inspection robot, as a technical carrier for de-
tection of mechanical and electrical failure of trans-
mission lines and inspection of their passages, is
highly efficient, stable and reliable in inspection
quality.
Developed countries like Japan, Canada and
U S A have carried out research on overhanging
transmission-line inspection robot since 1980s. In
1988 Sawade et al Ed developed a mobile robot for
inspection of O P G W , which can crawl along
grounding wire with a pair of driving wheels and a
pair of gripper wheels, and span obstacles like
shockproof damper on grounding wire. In 1989, a
cantilevered self-governed inspection robot was de-
veloped by U. S. T R C Inc. E27. In 2000, H y d r o -
Quebec's Research Institute ( I R E Q ) launched
their development on H Q L i n e R O V e r ( R O V , re-
motely operated vehicle) E3'q. In 2001, P e u n g s u n g -
wal et al :s~ presented an a u t o n o m o u s robot for the
power transmission line inspection that can induce
the voltage from the transmission line as a power
source.
In China, Wuhan University c6-8~took the lead
dong University Eg] developed a mobile robot for in-
spection of high voltage overhead power transmis-
sion lines, which is capable of automatically sur-
mounting obstacles.
In this paper, a mobile robot developed by
W u h a n University for inspection of 220 kV high
voltage transmission lines along phase conductors
was introduced. Such robot carrying inspection ap-
paratus and taking transmission lines as working
path can accomplish full-path hotline tasks on
overhead lines, including traveling along non-bar-
rier section, crossing insulator chain, d a m p e r , and
clamp, and transferring between j u m p e r and phase
line. Since inspection robots m u s t adjust posture
and position frequently to s u r m o u n t an obstacle,
and the joint drive m o t o r s s t a r t / b r a k e and change
speed in operation frequently, their dynamic character-
istics influence movement control precision and target
detection accuracy. Therefore, the robot is required to
maintain good dynamic performance and reliability.
2 ANALYSIS OF INSPECTION WORKING
CONDITION
A typical structure of transmission-line system

O Foundation item~ Project (50575165) supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China; project (2002AA420110,
2005AA2006-1) supported by the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China; project(20045006071 28)
supported by the Youth Chenguang Project of Science amd Technology of Wuhan City of China
Received date: 2005 - 02 - 18 ~ Accepted date: 2005 - 04 - 02
Correspondence= XIAO Xiao hui, Doctoral candidate; Tel.. q- 86-13397109529 ; E-mail: xhxiao@whu, edu. cn
X I A O Xiao-hui, et al: Dynamic simulation and experimental study of inspection robot for high-voltage transmission line
is shown in Fig. 1, including transmission-line,
damper, pressing duct, suspension line clamp and
insulator chain, iron tower and ground base and
safety channels etc.
Clamp Suspension Tensioning
\ insulatorchain insulator chain
~:S~ / Conductor / Angle
\ I
/ -~ - direction " ~
Damper Inspectionrobot ~ "-~,
Fig. 1 Structure of inspection path
In consideration of the transmission-line struc-
ture and the requirement on inspection, the inspec-
tion robot is suspended on transmission-line with
both arms. The rollers on the end of each arm ena-
ble the robot to roll along the non-obstacle seg-
ment of the transmission-line; a translation degree
of freedom(DOF ) between both robot arms can
realize interactive position adjustment between
them. With two turning DOFs, each arm is driven
by a motor independently, which is available for
realization of arm lifting and rotation.
Through motion programming, the inspection
robot is competent for rolling along straight non-
obstacle line, surmounting obstacles, and transfer-
ring between two spans. Each surmounting move-
ment is broken down into three basic steps, single
arm's lifting or descending, single arm's rotation,
both arms' interactive sliding and transposition
along guide rail. Dynamic experiment and numeri-
cal simulation study are performed according to the
following three conditions:
1) Both arms roiling along straight non-obsta-
cle line in parallel;
2) Single arm uplifting;
3) Both arms interactive sliding and transposi-
tion along guiding line.
DYNAMIC MODELING OF INSPECTION
ROBOT
The dynamics of inspection robot system is
modeled by Lagrange's equations B°'n?. First start
with Lagrange function, where Ek is the total ki-
netic energy of system, Ep is the potential energy
of system, as follows==
L=Ek--Ep (1)
Lagrange's equation, namely dynamic equa-
• 727 •
tion, is written as follows:
d {OL ) aL
i:1, z, ...,n (z)
where q, is the generalized displacement at joint
i; q, is the generalized velocity at joint i; z, is the
generalized force at joint i.
With the kinetic energy and potential energy
represented by the homogeneous coordinate, the
~III~tower
general formula of robot's dynamic equations is de-
veloped as follows==
°
k=l k 1m 1
where n is the number of robot links; Da is the
coupled inertia of joints i and k ; D~m is the coriolis
force coefficient caused by velocity of joints j and k
at joint i; G, is the gravity at joint i.
The robot has 6 joints in total, where joint 1
is imaginary hinge En? Oi; joint 4 is horizontal
translation joint; and the other four are rotating
joints on both arms. The axes of joint 2 and joint 6
are horizontal, intersecting perpendicularly with
that of joint 3 and joint 5 respectively. Also, axis
of translation joint 4 is horizontal, intersecting
perpendicularly with that of joint 3 and joint 5.
The coordinate system of each link is formed
as shown in Fig. 2. And based on D-H method ro-
bot link parameters are obtained. Link parameters
of inspection robot are shown in Table 1, specific
values of link parameters are not listed.
----__~ - . Y o Y l
[y I z 2 1 . [ Q --'-'--'-- /
[
z- x#66 4
Fig. 2 Link coordinates of inspection robot
First, obtain link transformation matrix as
written in Eqn. (4) ; then, acquire D~i, D,j~ , Du~,
and D, E~J from Eqn. (4) and Pseud-inertia matrix
J1. To save space, effective inertia and coupled in-
ertia items are described in Eqn. (5), the rest coef-
ficients come from Ref. [-8].
 • 728 • Journal CSUT VoL 12 No. 6 2005

T,= ilOl
lOO

0
0
1
0
I1
T2 =° Tll T2 =
fo slo ;
L: c °0 10
C2 C3 - - C 2 S3
--s20 al-~olS21
--S 3 --C3
T~ = ~ T ~ =
- - 5 2 C3 52S3 --C20 dl+llCZj;
0 0
- - C2 C3 --52 --C2 S3 -- d4 cz s3 -~ ls2 + al ~
I 0 --C3 --d4c3 L;
--C2 $2$3 d4szsa~-llCZ+dl j
0 0
- - - C2 C35 C2 S35 --S2 --d4c2s3+al~
$35 C35 0 --d4c3 [ ;
Ts = T~ T~
S2 C35 - - S 2 S35 --C 2 d4szs~ ~t-dl J
0 0 0
s~ s~ - c2c,5 c6 S 2 C6"2f-C2 C35 S6 C2S35 al --d4c2s3~
$35 C6 - - $ 3 5 S6 c35 -- d4 c3 l
/'6 = ~/'6 = (4)
s2c~5c~ + c~s6 - - S 2 C35 $ 6 - 4 - C 2 C 6 - - $ 2S350 dl +~4s2s3J
0 0
6
Oil : ,=~/5
J Trace(o-~-ql
;'.__ 8ql J ml q-m2-ffm3 q-m, q-m5 q-ms;
6 /0T, " 0T T
022 = ~,, T r a c e / ~ [ J , -f~[]=, 12= +c~I3= q-cgI4= +c~sls= +(c~c~5 + s6)I6= + I2,s +s~I3ss + I4,y +
#=2
s35
2 Isw + 22
(S6C35 +C~)Issy + I3= -~-S~[4= -}- 15= + S235 16= + r e a l 2 + m 4 1 z +
m, l 2 + 17"/4d~ s~ + ms d~ s~ + ms s~xs~2 + 2m~ & z~ s~ - 2m~ ~'6d4 s~ s6 c~5
/~TD r

14= "+ 16= + 2d4 (rn4 z'4 + ms~yssss6 ) + d~ (m4 + m5 + m5 ) ;

6 ,8Tp ,
044 = 2 T r a c e ( ~ - 4 jp 3T~ )
p=4
6 .aT,. aT,~ ~ =
D55 = ~-~Trace(B-2-d , Is=q-I5,yq-c~I6=q-sgI6~q-Is=~
~=5 \ 6 a05 )
.-. , a T , , aT~ x =
D66 = ~ _ _ j T r a c e [ ~ [ j , 006 } I6= + 16,, (5)
p=6 \ 6

where ci and si are the cosine 0. and sine 0i, re-

spectively; c35 and 635 stand for c o s ( G + 05) and 4 E X P E R I M E N T A L A N A L Y S I S OF D Y N A M I C S
sin(03 +0~ ), respectively; ai, a, and d~ are the link
twist angle, the length, and the link offset, re- Dynamics experiment was performed upon
spectively; i = l , 2, 3, 4, 5 , 6. Prototype l]I inspection robot in 220 kV 1 " 1 high-
voltage transmission-line simulation laboratory of
Table 1 Link parameters of Inspection Robot
College of Power and Mechanical Engineering,
i Oi/(°) ai-1/(°) ai-i dl
Wuhan University. Test values were motor drive
1 90 0 0 dl ( V a r i a b l e )
current, angular displacement, angular velocity
2 02 ( V a r i a b i e ) - - 90 al 0
and angular acceleration of each joint. And data of
3 03 ( V a r i a b l e ) --90 0 d3(--l)
4 180 - - 90 0 d4 ( V a r i a b l e )
angular displacement, angular velocity and angular
5 0s ( V a r i a b l e ) -90 0 ds(l) acceleration of each joint were originated from the
6 06 ( V a r i a b l e ) 90 0 0 sensor inside robot control system.
XIAOXiao-hui,et ah Dynamicsimulationand experimentalstudyof inspectionrobotfor high-voltagetransmission-line • 729 •

4.1 Composition of experimental system
A 20 m-span 1 " 1 simulated transmission line
of three-span and two-tower was set up for effec-
tive full-path inspection operation on simulated
field. Experimental system is shown in Fig. 3.
4.2 Composition of test system
The current test system was composed of 6
hall-effect current transducers, 6-channel electric
charge amplifier and INV360D 16-channel data ac-
quisition instrument, and a notepad PC installed
with DASP-data acquisition and analysis platform.
System composition is shown in Fig. 4.
Dynamic experimental result of each condition
are shown in Figs. 5, 6 and 7, respectively.
5 DYNAMIC NUMERICAL SIMULATION
Based on the above dynamic modeling, simu-
late inspection robot's forward dynamics response
with Matlab program c~z~. The multi-rigid body dy-
namic simulation software base on Matlab 7.0 was
used, which provides two functions to solve differ-
ential equation.
Conditions simulated are listed as follows:
1) Both arms rolling along straight non-obsta-
cle line in parallel;
2) Single arm's uplifting (rotation of joint 2) ;
3) Both arms' interactive sliding and transpo-
sition along guiding line (movement of Joint 4).
Input parameter was the driving torque ap-
plied to each joint, which was converted from the
motor drive current-time course measured in exper-
iment and motor torque coefficientES'131 Put driv-
ing torque into dynamic equation to obtain acceler-
ation, velocity and displacement of each joint.
The dynamic simulation results under condi-
tions 2 and 3 are shown in Figs. 8 and 9.

////

~-- Suspension
- ,// insulatorchain
I.
.2_ , Conductor q.]l~
Tension 2_ -- / ~

Electric~ n . ~ n e ~ ' n n robot ~

transducer ({(j/ .... proto-@pe--- jura/per

~,nti-aliasfilter ~ C o m p u t e r

Data acquisitioninstrument

Fig. 3 Scheme of experimental system

Electric current
transducers~I ~ ~
16-channel data PC and DASP
Anti-alias Acquisition Data analysis
filter Instrument Software

Fig. 4 Scheme of test system

XIAOXiao-hui,et ah Dynamicsimulationand experimentalstudyof inspectionrobotfor high-voltagetransmission-line • 729 •

4.1 Composition of experimental system
A 20 m-span 1 " 1 simulated transmission line
of three-span and two-tower was set up for effec-
tive full-path inspection operation on simulated
field. Experimental system is shown in Fig. 3.
4.2 Composition of test system
The current test system was composed of 6
hall-effect current transducers, 6-channel electric
charge amplifier and INV360D 16-channel data ac-
quisition instrument, and a notepad PC installed
with DASP-data acquisition and analysis platform.
System composition is shown in Fig. 4.
Dynamic experimental result of each condition
are shown in Figs. 5, 6 and 7, respectively.
5 DYNAMIC NUMERICAL SIMULATION
Based on the above dynamic modeling, simu-
late inspection robot's forward dynamics response
with Matlab program c~z~. The multi-rigid body dy-
namic simulation software base on Matlab 7.0 was
used, which provides two functions to solve differ-
ential equation.
Conditions simulated are listed as follows:
1) Both arms rolling along straight non-obsta-
cle line in parallel;
2) Single arm's uplifting (rotation of joint 2) ;
3) Both arms' interactive sliding and transpo-
sition along guiding line (movement of Joint 4).
Input parameter was the driving torque ap-
plied to each joint, which was converted from the
motor drive current-time course measured in exper-
iment and motor torque coefficientES'131 Put driv-
ing torque into dynamic equation to obtain acceler-
ation, velocity and displacement of each joint.
The dynamic simulation results under condi-
tions 2 and 3 are shown in Figs. 8 and 9.

////

~-- Suspension
- ,// insulatorchain
I.
.2_ , Conductor q.]l~
Tension 2_ -- / ~

Electric~ n . ~ n e ~ ' n n robot ~

transducer ({(j/ .... proto-@pe--- jura/per

~,nti-aliasfilter ~ C o m p u t e r

Data acquisitioninstrument

Fig. 3 Scheme of experimental system

Electric current
transducers~I ~ ~
16-channel data PC and DASP
Anti-alias Acquisition Data analysis
filter Instrument Software

Fig. 4 Scheme of test system

4.1 Composition of experimental system
A 20 m-span 1 " 1 simulated transmission line
of three-span and two-tower was set up for effec-
tive full-path inspection operation on simulated
field. Experimental system is shown in Fig. 3.
4.2 Composition of test system
The current test system was composed of 6
hall-effect current transducers, 6-channel electric
charge amplifier and INV360D 16-channel data ac-
quisition instrument, and a notepad PC installed
with DASP-data acquisition and analysis platform.
System composition is shown in Fig. 4.
Dynamic experimental result of each condition
are shown in Figs. 5, 6 and 7, respectively.
5 DYNAMIC NUMERICAL SIMULATION
Based on the above dynamic modeling, simu-
late inspection robot's forward dynamics response
with Matlab program c~z~. The multi-rigid body dy-
namic simulation software base on Matlab 7.0 was
used, which provides two functions to solve differ-
ential equation.
Conditions simulated are listed as follows:
1) Both arms rolling along straight non-obsta-
cle line in parallel;
2) Single arm's uplifting (rotation of joint 2) ;
3) Both arms' interactive sliding and transpo-
sition along guiding line (movement of Joint 4).
Input parameter was the driving torque ap-
plied to each joint, which was converted from the
motor drive current-time course measured in exper-
iment and motor torque coefficientES'131 Put driv-
ing torque into dynamic equation to obtain acceler-
ation, velocity and displacement of each joint.
The dynamic simulation results under condi-
tions 2 and 3 are shown in Figs. 8 and 9.

////

~-- Suspension
- ,// insulatorchain
I.
.2_ , Conductor q.]l~
Tension 2_ -- / ~

Electric~ n . ~ n e ~ ' n n robot ~

transducer ({(j/ .... proto-@pe--- jura/per

~,nti-aliasfilter ~ C o m p u t e r

Data acquisitioninstrument

Fig. 3 Scheme of experimental system

Electric current
transducers~I ~ ~
16-channel data PC and DASP
Anti-alias Acquisition Data analysis
filter Instrument Software

Fig. 4 Scheme of test system