Multi-Aerial Robotic System for Power Line Inspection and Maintenance: Comparative Analysis From the AERIAL-CORE Final Experiments
This paper shows how different types of novel aerial robots with new functionalities can cooperate in the inspection and maintenance (I&M) of power lines, one of the largest and most essential civil infrastructures in any country. This study relies on the results from the AERIAL-CORE research and innovation project. The paper describes an I&M validation scenario and evaluation metrics for three linked operation domains: 1) long-range inspection for the detection of possible damages on power lines in a post-storm scenario, 2) aerial manipulation for the installation of devices on power lines, and 3) aerial co-working to help human operators in their activities at height. It presents the demonstration of ten different aerial robots in a real scenario with 10 km of power lines. The platforms include morphing-wing and VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), multi-rotors, and aerial manipulators. These platforms, custom-developed or commercially available, are evaluated in the three application domains, describing the new functionalities implemented for each case. The paper ends with guidelines, design principles, and lessons learned for future developments derived from the final demonstration of the project.
Authors
- Antonio Franchi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5670-1282)
- Vincenzo Lippiello (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6089-2333)
- Martin Saska (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7106-3816)
- Viet Duong Hoang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1990-2843)
- Carlos F. Gaitán (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3592-5196)
- Giovanni Cioffi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3964-8552)
- Fabio Ruggiero (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7539-9157)
- Amr Afifi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2267-575X)
- Christos Papaioannidis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3839-4514)
- Alejandro Suárez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4549-6957)
- Carlos Martín-Díaz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2943-8239)
- Antonio-Miguel Muñoz-Gómez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5617-952X)
- Begoña C. Arrue (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1777-2675)
- Alvaro Caballero (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6273-1851)
- Goran Vasiljević (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8654-9680)
- Antidio Viguria (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4193-9965)
- Davide Scaramuzza (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3831-6778)
- Anı́bal Ollero (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2155-2472)
- Dario Floreano (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5330-4863)
- Ioannis Pitas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-7555-8641)
- Emad Ebeid (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7847-149X)
- Stjepan Bogdan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2636-3216)
- Vít Krátký (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1914-742X)
- José Ramiro Martínez‐de Dios (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9431-7831)
- Juan Manuel Marredo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-8021-2123)
- Charalampos Vourtsis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6087-3098)
- Jacob Rodriguez Rivero (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4607-1990)
- Chloe Hanoune
- Carlos Matilla
- Krzysztof Zurad
Institutions
- University of Southern Denmark (DK)
- University of Zagreb (HR)
- University of Zurich (CH)
- Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (GR)
- Navarrabiomed (ES)
- Center for Advanced Aerospace Technologies (ES)
- CIRCE - Centro Tecnológico (ES)
- Czech Technical University in Prague (CZ)
- École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CH)
- University of Naples Federico II (IT)
- Universidad de Sevilla (ES)
- Donbas National Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture (UA)
- University of Twente (NL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- IEEE transactions on field robotics.
- Published
- 2025-01-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1109/tfr.2025.3586991
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Power Line Inspection Robots
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.43