«Cablewalker» will protect high-voltage lines in the frost and freezing rain

14:17, August 26, 2021

The project is operated by Ural Interregional Research and Education Center

Ural researchers are engaged in creating a promising technology for robotic maintenance of power facilities. This technology will allow to prevent accidents caused by terrible natural phenomenа — ice and wet snow deposition on wires and structures of high-voltage lines. Such phenomena, known as freezing rain, lead to large-scale accidents and long-term power outages of entire regions from the Moscow region to the Far East.

"The essence of the new technology is the application of special anti — icing coatings on wires and OPGW cables of high-voltage lines," says Alexander Lemekh, head of UrFU «Laboratory of the Future». — A significant advantage of the robotic complex is the solution of the problem of electromagnetic compatibility, which allows to work on high-voltage lines without disconnecting them."

In March this year, tests of the technology were carried out successfully at the facilities of the «Rosseti Ural» company in the Sverdlovsk Region and the Perm Territory. «Main Electric Grids of the Urals» company has been interested in the implementation of the technology of UrFU «Laboratory of the Future» to improve the reliability of power lines with voltage of 220 and 500 kV.

The promising developments in the field of robotics for energy are being conducted at the Ural Interregional Research and Education Center «Advanced Industrial Technologies and Materials». So, robots of the «Cablewalker» type are already widely known – it can detect a variety of defects in the elements of overhead power lines with the help of five machine vision systems, being on the switched-on line. This allows to prevent serious accidents in the electrical networks.

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