Robotic Platform for Monitoring

Underground Cable Systems

B. Jiang, Student Member, IEEE, P. Stuart, Student Member, IEEE

M. Raymond, Student Member, IEEE, D. Villa, and A. V. Mamishev, Member, IEEE

monitoring is a viable alternative. Remote monitoring of

Abstract-- Accurate, real-time information about the aging

status of the power distribution cable network can save the

Several mobile monitoring applications have previously

been demonstrated. In 1989, two manipulator systems were

Index Terms—Dielectrometry, distribution power system,

mobile sensing, power cables, real-time monitoring, sensor array.

I. INTRODUCTION
The nationwide power distribution network contains

millions of miles of cable, all in various states of aging.

Currently, cables are replaced either reactively (when a fault

While previous applications have demonstrated mobile

monitoring of overhead power cable networks, none have

II. ROBOT PLATFORM

Traditionally, cable monitoring is performed with the aid of

Specific challenges associated with this application include

a fixed distributed sensor network or by a highly specialized

space confinement, size and weight restrictions, wireless

A. System Overview

A unique segmented configuration allows the robot to

traverse cables with a diameter of four to eight centimeters

 This work is supported by NSF CAREER Award #0093716. It is also

partly supported by the Electrical Energy Industrial Consortium and Advanced

All authors are with the SEAL (Sensors, Energy, and Automation

Laboratory), Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Washington,

 The system control architecture is divided into two parts:

remote host computer control and on-board robot control.

P ip e

The host computer communicates with the robot via a radio

transmitter module connected to the host computer serial port.

Mo d ul a r mo b il e s e ns or p l at f o rm

C a b le

M o ti o n a ct u a t or s
 Po w e r an d

Fri ng in g e le ct ri c f ie l d

A co us t ic a n d

Fig. 1. Conceptual design of miniature robotic platform.

Radio modem

UART

FEF sensor

I/O

MCU2(8 535 )

MCU3(8535)

MCU4(8535)

MCU3(8535)

MCU4(8535)

SPI Bus
 Fig. 2. Robotic platform for monitoring of power cables.

The robotic platform consists of three segments coupled by

Master MCU1(103)

MCU5(8535)-UI

Master MCU1(103)

MCU5(8535)-UI

two freely rotating joints. Each end segment has a pair of

PWM UART

Motors

IR sen sor

Motors

IR senso r

Fig. 4. Control circuit board on the robot.

 Ancillary functions include IR based obstacle avoidance

and bumper switch collision detection.

B. Internet remote control

A complementary PC application was developed in parallel

Host Computer

with the platform to control the robot and analyze gathered

S ig na l pro c e ss ing P la nn ing& c o m ma nd

W ir el e ss

c o mmu nic a t i on

Each module communicates with the main control program

via bi-directional asynchronous software socket connections.

Ca bl e a nd

Mi c rop roc e ss ors Cl os ed l oo p

 m o t i o n st a t u s

c ont ro l

Robot

S e nso r ar ra ys

A c t ua t ors (mot or s)

( mo ni t ori ng a nd

A c t ua t ors (mot or s)

( mo ni t ori ng a nd

mot i on se ns ors )

The current system allows a technician to control a remote,

Fig. 3. Information flow of the robotic platform.

distributed networ of power line inspection robots through a

Data

Visualization
 Socket

Main Control

Data

Communication

P roc essing

Fig. 5. Modular software architecture for robot control.

M ai n C o n tr o l

L AN o r Di a lu p

LA N or Di a lu p

Se r ve r n

Ser v e r 1

Se r v e r k

Fig. 8. Central computer user interface.

W i r el es s
 W ir e le s s

com m unic a t ion

c om muni c at i on

III. SENSOR ARRAY

Ro b o t 1

Ro b o t n

Ro b o t k

The main sensing principles appropriate for nondestructive,

power cable monitoring include acoustics, dielectrometry,

Fig. 6. Client/server model for distributed line crawling robot team.

Multiple instances of remote robot control can be

established by creating bi-directional asynchronous socket

A. Infrared sensors

Thermal analysis plays an important role in the evaluation

 of insulation status. Polymers commonly used as electrical

The first mode places the robot into fully autonomous

operation, with all data processing done onboard. In this

User interfaces for server applications and the central

computer are seen below in Fig. 7 and Fig. 8 respectively.

Preliminary IR sensing experiments have been encouraging.

A mobile platform equipped with the Thermalert MID

Fig. 7. Server user interface.

 D. Signal processing

One of the most significant challenges in multi-sensor

systems is processing large amounts of data, which requires

IV. CONCLUSIONS

With recent advances in the miniaturization of sensor and

signal processing hardware, a remote mobile inspection

Fig. 9. Preliminary temperature sensing data.

B. Dielectrometry sensors
 A novel mobile robot equipped with infrared,

Fringing electric field dielectrometry sensors are used to

gather information about the aging status of power distribution

dielectrometry and acoustic sensors, has been developed to

patrol four to eight centimeter diameter power distribution
cables, and gather real time information on the cables aging
status. Remote inspection has been realized through a
client/server software package that allows a technician to
control multiple robots over a LAN.

In principle, the sensor applies a spatially periodic electrical

potential over the surface of the material under test. The

Future efforts will include signal acquisition, data fusion

and signal processing based on multi-sensors information.

V. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Special thanks to undergraduate students Dinh Bowman,

Rejo Jose, Hans Isern, and Jeff Chen for designing,

Another important application of the interdigital sensor is

 the detection the water uptake, since water is best detectable

VI. REFERENCES

C. Acoustic sensors

[1] W. Reder and D. Flaten. Reliability Centered Maintenance for

Acoustic sensing is used in this application to detect partial

Distribution Underground Systems. 1, 551-556. 2000. IEEE Power

discharges in the power distribution cable. Acoustic sensing

[2] M. Tsutsui, H. Tsuchihashi, K. Satoh, M. Mukaida, H. Watanabe, S.

Mori, Y. Kojima, and S. Yokoyama, "Manipulator System for

Partial discharge measurement is an important diagnostic

[3] S. Nio and Y. Maruyama. Remote-operated Robotic System for Live-

tool, especially for medium and high voltage cables, where

local intensity of electric stress can reach breakdown values.
While acoustic sensing has been very successful for
switchgear and transformers [12], cable applications have
been more challenging because acoustic signals are attenuated
during propagation, thus requiring close proximity for
detection. However, once the sensor can be delivered to a
reasonable proximity of the discharge location (about 20
meters), acoustic sensing becomes possible. In this
application, high precision, broad bandwidth microphones will
be used.

line Maintenance Work. 425-435. 1993. ESMO-93 Sixth International

[4] M. Boyer. Systems Integration in Telerobotics: Case Study:

Maintenance of Electric Power Lines. 2, 1042-1047. 1996. IEEE

[5] A. Santamaria, R. Aracil, A. Tuduri, P. Martinez, F. Val, L. F. Penin, M.

Ferre, E. Pinto, and A. Barrientos. Teleoperated Robots for Live Power

[6] J. Sawada, K. Kusumoto, Y. Maikawa, T. Munakata, and Y. Ishikawa,

"A Mobile Robot For Inspection of Power Transmission Lines," IEEE

[7] H. Kobayashi, H. Nakamura, and T. Shimada. An Inspection Robot For

Feeder Cables-Basic Structure And Control. 2, 992-995. 1991.

[8] R. Lyle, "Effect of Testing Parameters on The Outcome of The

Michelle Raymond is currently a senior in Electrical

Accelerated Cable Life Test," IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery,

[9] L. Lamarre, D. Fournier, and R. Morin. Early Detection of Faults In

Underground Distribution Cable Joints By Partial Discharge

[10] H. Brakelmann and G. Anders, "Ampacity Reduction Factors For Cables

Crossing Thermally Unfavorable Regions," IEEE Transactions on

[11] A. V. Mamishev, Y. Du, B. C. Lesieutre, and M. Zahn, "Development

Daniel Villa is currently a senior in Electrical

and Applications of Fringing Electric Field Sensors and Parameter

[12] Y. Lu, X. Tan, and X. Hu, "PD detection and localization by acoustic

measurements in an oil-filled transformer," IEE Proceedings on Science

VII. BIOGRAPHIES

Alexander Mamishev received B.S. degree from the

 Bing Jiang received the B.S. degree from Tianjin

electrical insulation diagnostics, and power quality. He serves as a reviewer

Paul G. Stuart is currently a senior Electrical

machine vision.