Robotic Monitoring of Power Systems
Abstract
The Monitoring of electric power systems in real time for reliability, aging status, and presence of incipient faults requires distributed and centralized processing of large amounts of data from distributed sensor networks.This article says about mobile monitoring. The relevant sensor
technologies that are used to monitor power systems like acoustic, fringing electric field, infrared sensing are discussed.

TECHNOLOGICAL NEEDS
space confinement,
size and weight restrictions, wireless design requirements, and
adverse environmental conditions are the major challenges in this field. MEMS, microelectronics, and communication technologies have made the miniaturisation possible.
mobile monitoring of power systems
involves the following issues.:
a)Sensor fusion:
positioning, tactile, and
other sensors are required.

b)Motion pattern:
There are external and internal robots: The internal units use inner spaces of ducts and pipes. External robots travel over the outer surface of
electrical components and may possess a high degree of
autonomy.

c)Power supply:
The the power
supply has to be wireless.It may also harvest energy from energized cables. The inductive coupling for a wireless power supply could be a desired method.

d)Control strategy:
It may include object tracking, collision
avoidance, and prevention of electrical short circuits.

e)Communication:
The data exchange between the master computer and the mobile robot
is done through this.

f)Positioning system:
The GPS is used used to estimate the location of the
robot.

For full report:
http://ee.washington.edu/research/seal/p...912918.pdf