Inspection Operations Using an Aerial Robot Powered-over-Tether by a Ground Vehicle

Within this paper, the utilization of an aerial robot that is powered-over-tether by a ground robot in order to execute long-endurance infrastructure inspection operations is described. Details on the key-concept of the Power-over-Tether system with the power bank of the aerial robot now being located on the ground vehicle are provided. To allow smooth flight of the aerial vehicle, a long power cable is wound onto a custom-developed base which is capable of releasing and retracting in a controlled manner. This design is exploited via a special controller that handles the coordinated motion of the two robots. Finally, a structural inspection planner is integrated into the system and bene-fitting by the on-board perception and mapping capabilities of the aerial robot autonomous 3D reconstruction of the desired objects is achieved. The overall framework is evaluated using experimental studies relevant to infrastructure inspection operations.