Autonomous robotic monitoring of underground cable systems

Maintenance of distributed infrastructures requires periodic measurement of many physical variables at numerous locations. This task can potentially be accomplished with autonomous robotic mobile platforms. The challenges in realizing this vision include electromechanical design of the robot itself, integration of sensors able to estimate the physical properties of the infrastructure, and autonomous operation. This paper describes the electromechanical and sensing system design of the autonomous robot for the inspection of electric power cables. The multi-processor distributed control architecture developed in this project allows real-time operation of multiple sensors and a possibility to switch between an autonomous mode of operation and a remote-controlled one. The diagnostic sensor array includes thermal, visual, dielectric, and acoustic sensors for the measurement of cable status. Laboratory tests demonstrate the ability of integrated sensors to measure parameters of interest with the resolution required by the application. Field tests in the underground cable system demonstrate the ability of the designed platform to travel along the cable, navigate typical obstacles, and communicate with the host computer.