Design and development of an integrated inspection framework comprising of UGVs with deployable UAYs for critical power infrastructure inspection

Operational efficiency and preventive maintenance are essential to ensure smooth and uninterrupted functioning of the components of the power infrastructure. In order to achieve this, an effective autonomous inspection framework that inculcates state-of-art autonomous robots (UGVs + UAVs) which can continuously monitor the environment and inspect the components for failure is essential. AI based algorithms can detect the faults occurring in the critical infrastructure (such as hotspots, mechanical failure, splice failure etc.) using the sensory data obtained by the robots and can also predict failures. In this process, operational down-time could be reduced and thereby consequent losses.The proposed system in this project consists of two essential collaborative robots that forms the backbone of the integrated framework of the Non-destructive inspection of critical infrastructure. These are an autonomously guided vehicle (AGV/UGV) acting as a base station from where an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) can be deployed as the task demands. Further, there will be two such collaborative robots to create a swarm-like environment and distribute the inspection work in case of urgent failure. The following illustrates the inspection framework with its components and sub-systems.