Recently, the State Grid Hubei Electric Power Research Institute successfully developed China's first AI-powered 110 kV substation equipotential live-line working robot, which is expected to replace manual maintenance.
The robot chassis is a tracked bucket truck, with the robot platform installed at the top of the bucket arm. After the bucket arm is extended, the robot platform can be transported to a height of more than 10 meters.
The robot platform has two robotic arms, one large and one small. The large main robotic arm is equipped with an electric locking bolt tool, which can disassemble and install the drain wire clamp; the small auxiliary robotic arm is equipped with a high-pressure drying air nozzle, which can clean dust and dirt on the insulator.
Traditional live-line work on power distribution networks requires the human body to directly contact the live lines after being protected by insulation or to contact the live lines through an insulated rod. Both of these operations require the person to be more than 10 meters in the air, which is a high-risk operation.
With this live-line working robot, the robotic arm can grasp and change different tools to perform complete operations such as stripping and grabbing wires at heights, and threading wires in a coordinated manner with both arms. Workers can operate it remotely from the ground through a 3D model interface on the control terminal.
It should be noted that since the second half of 2020, power grids in many provinces and cities across the country have begun to pilot live-line robot operations. Yinchuan, Tianjin, Wuxi, Shaoxing, Zhuji, Hangzhou, Yangzhou, Hefei, Xining and other cities have begun to test and use the new technology of live-line robot operations.
However, the voltage used in previous operations was mostly 10 kV, mainly for wiring work, which is quite different from the AI-type 110 kV substation equipment of the State Grid Hubei Electric Power Research Institute.
However, the most well-known manufacturer of live-line working robots in this field is State Grid Ruijia (Tianjin) Intelligent Robot Co., Ltd. Its products have been successfully applied in high-altitude areas above 2,000 meters. Currently, the most widely used products in the country are produced by State Grid Ruijia and are widely used in more than 10 provinces and cities including Tianjin, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong, Anhui, and Chongqing, with nearly 2,000 field trials.
In the next few years, State Grid Ruijia plans to expand its product coverage to 10 kV to 35 kV and live-line working scenarios such as substations.
