Climbing robot device of power transmission tower and control system of climbing robot device

Abstract

The invention relates to the technical field of electric power inspection, and discloses a climbing robot device of a power transmission tower and a control system thereof, the climbing robot device comprises a safety device deployment robot, the safety device deployment robot comprises a device box, the bottom of the device box is fixedly connected with an anti-collision plate, and the top of the anti-collision plate is provided with a supporting seat. A safety device is arranged to deploy cooperative use of a robot and a control system, an STM32F407ZET6 is used as a main control chip, a traditional PID control theory is improved, a YOLOv8 lightweight detection algorithm is improved, camera vision, wireless communication and man-machine interaction are fused to jointly complete a foot nail climbing operation task, and the problems that a currently common method is manual inspection, manual inspection is not needed, and the operation efficiency is high are solved. The problems that manual inspection is large in workload, hard in condition, long in inspection period and low in efficiency, and life dangers are prone to occurring when electric power workers climb an angle steel tower of a power transmission line to conduct detection and maintenance are solved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention belongs to the technical field of electric power inspection, and in particular relates to a climbing robot device for a transmission tower and a control system thereof. Background Art

[0002] In recent years, with the increasing demand for electric energy in all walks of life, the construction of the national power grid has also developed rapidly, and the application of high-voltage transmission lines has become more and more common. The length of transmission lines is increasing, and high-voltage transmission lines mainly rely on power poles and towers as support. In view of the large number of transmission towers and the wide distribution area, and the towers are in the outdoor environment for a long time, they are greatly affected by rainy weather, snowy weather, dust, birds, etc. In order to ensure the normal operation of the towers, regular maintenance is a must. At present, the detection of angle steel towers for transmission lines is carried out.

[0003] The problem with the above technology is that the commonly used method is manual inspection, which not only has a large workload, harsh conditions, long inspection cycles and low efficiency, but also puts power workers in danger of their lives when climbing the angle steel towers of transmission lines for inspection and maintenance. Summary of the invention

[0004] In view of the problems existing in the prior art, the present invention provides a transmission tower climbing robot device and a control system thereof that can overcome the above problems or at least partially solve the above problems.

[0005] The present invention is implemented as follows: a climbing robot device for a transmission tower and its control system, including a safety device deployment robot, the safety device deployment robot including a device box, the bottom of the device box is fixedly connected to an anti-collision plate, the top of the anti-collision plate is installed with a support seat, the top of the support seat is installed with a transmission module, one side of the transmission module is installed with a brake switch, one side of the brake switch is installed with a drive motor, one side of the transmission module is installed with a telescopic arm, the bottom of the telescopic arm is installed with an L-shaped hook, and one side of the device box is installed with an auxiliary hook.

[0006] Preferably, the present invention comprises a transmission tower climbing robot device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control system comprises:

[0007] Main controller module, power module, motor drive module, wireless module, sensor module and visual recognition module;

[0008] The working process of the control system is as follows: the visual module sensor collects information data and transmits it to the lower computer main controller through the I / O port; the lower computer main controller processes the data, determines the position of the foot nails, makes corresponding decisions, thereby determining the action plan, and sends control signals to mobilize the drive module to control the motor to coordinate the movement of the climbing robot; at the same time, two-way communication between the upper computer and the lower computer main controller can be achieved through wireless communication, and the collected information can be sent to the PC host computer, and the control signal of the PC host computer can also be sent to the lower computer control board to realize the control of each module of the climbing robot.

[0009] Preferably, in the present invention, the visual recognition module establishes a connection between the camera and the host computer through the HTTP protocol. Based on the video data transmitted back by the camera, the operator analyzes and judges the video and makes a decision, and sends movement or stop instructions to the robot joint motors through different buttons on the control interface, thereby realizing the robot's climbing action.

[0010] Preferably, the power module has an input voltage of 10-90 VDC, an output voltage of 1.5-60 VDC, a maximum output current of 6 A, a maximum power of 100 W, a conversion efficiency of 97.5%, and an input reverse connection protection function, and its endurance is up and down 200 meters.

[0011] Compared with the prior art, the present invention has the following beneficial effects:

[0012] The present invention arranges the coordinated use of the safety device deployment robot and the control system, uses STM32F407ZET6 as the main control chip, improves the traditional PID control theory, improves the YOLOv8 lightweight detection algorithm, integrates camera vision and wireless communication, and completes the foot nail climbing task through human-computer interaction, thereby solving the problem that the currently commonly used method is manual inspection, which not only has a large workload, difficult conditions, a long inspection cycle, and low efficiency, but also is prone to life-threatening problems for power workers when climbing the angle steel tower of the transmission line for inspection and maintenance. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0013] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a three-dimensional structure provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0014] Figure 2 It is a block diagram of a safety device deployment robot control system provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0015] Figure 3 It is a block diagram of a telescopic arm control strategy provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0016] Figure 4 It is a schematic diagram of the structure of a C2f_ScConv module provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0017] Figure 5 It is a power supply block diagram provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0018] Figure 6 It is a block diagram of a safety device deployment robot software system provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0019] Figure 7 The present invention provides a robot climbing control block diagram;

[0020] Figure 8 The embodiment of the present invention provides a visual software system architecture;

[0021] Fig. 9 is a flowchart of an image display module provided by an embodiment of the present invention,

[0022] In the figure: 1. Safety device deployment robot; 101. Device box; 102. Anti-collision plate; 103. Support seat; 104. Transmission module; 105. Brake switch; 106. Drive motor; 107. Telescopic arm; 108. L-shaped hook; 109. Auxiliary hook. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0023] In order to further understand the content, features and effects of the present invention, the following embodiments are given as examples and described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0024] The structure of the present invention is described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

[0025] like Figures 1 to 9 As shown, an embodiment of the present invention provides a transmission tower climbing robot device and a control system thereof, including a safety device deployment robot, the safety device deployment robot including a device box, a crash plate fixedly connected to the bottom of the device box, a support seat installed on the top of the crash plate, a transmission module installed on the top of the support seat, a brake switch installed on one side of the transmission module, a drive motor installed on one side of the brake switch, a telescopic arm installed on one side of the transmission module, an L-shaped hook installed on the bottom of the telescopic arm, and an auxiliary hook installed on one side of the device box.

[0026] A transmission tower climbing robot device according to claim 1, wherein the control system comprises:

[0027] Main controller module, power module, motor drive module, wireless module, sensor module and visual recognition module;

[0028] The working process of the control system is as follows: the visual module sensor collects information data and transmits it to the lower computer main controller through the I / O port; the lower computer main controller processes the data, determines the position of the foot nails, makes corresponding decisions, thereby determining the action plan, and sends control signals to mobilize the drive module to control the motor to coordinate the movement of the climbing robot; at the same time, two-way communication between the upper computer and the lower computer main controller can be achieved through wireless communication, and the collected information can be sent to the PC host computer, and the control signal of the PC host computer can also be sent to the lower computer control board to realize the control of each module of the climbing robot.

[0029] The visual recognition module establishes a connection between the camera and the host computer through the HTTP protocol. Based on the video data sent back by the camera, the operator analyzes and judges the video and makes decisions. He also sends movement or stop instructions to the robot's joint motors through different buttons on the control interface, thereby realizing the robot's climbing action.

[0030] The power module has an input voltage of 10-90VDC, an output voltage of 1.5-60VDC, a maximum output current of 6A, a maximum power of 100W, a conversion efficiency of 97.5%, and an input reverse polarity protection function. Its range is 200 meters.

[0031] Safety device deployment The robot body mainly includes drive motor, brake switch, transmission module, telescopic arm, mechanical gripper, pressure sensor, auxiliary hook, anti-collision plate, support seat, bearing seat, etc. The whole device is powered by a 24V power supply, and the drive motor drives the whole robot to climb. According to the real-time picture sent back by the camera, the robot is controlled to reach the specified position.

[0032] Visual recognition module

[0033] In view of the complex outdoor high-altitude environment where the safety device is deployed, the visual recognition module is designed to establish a connection between the camera and the host computer through the HTTP protocol. According to the video data sent back by the camera, the operator analyzes and judges the video and makes decisions, and sends movement or stop instructions to the robot's joint motors through different buttons on the control interface, thereby realizing the robot's climbing action.

[0034] Working process of telescopic arm control: The visual module detects the position of the robot arm relative to the target foot nail, converts it into an electrical signal through the conversion circuit, compares it with the target value, and sends the obtained deviation to the PID controller, which automatically outputs the control signal to control the driver according to the control law. The driver controls the speed and start and stop of the DC motor according to the input signal, and finally controls the position of the telescopic arm. The system will automatically adjust the DC motor according to the change of the telescopic arm position to meet the needs of the robot climbing.

[0035] Main Controller

[0036] The STM32F407ZET6 single-chip microcomputer is used as the core processor of the control system. It is an integrated circuit of an embedded microcontroller. The single-chip microcomputer has high performance, low cost, low power consumption, and has a rich peripheral interface. The chip ports used for robot control are (1) 1 Ethernet interface, connected to the switch, connected to the router, telescopic arm, and camera through the switch for data exchange; (2) power input and output interface, 24V input power supply voltage; (3) motor drive connected to the telescopic arm screw drive servo motor; (4) 4-way isolated output interface, the output is connected to the relay module for controlling the on and off of the relay; (5) 4-way isolated input interface, connected to the brake switch for controlling the motor brake. (7) The power output interface is used to connect the pressure sensor and power it.

[0037] Battery Module

[0038] It is powered by a 24V model aircraft lithium battery. A synchronous rectification non-isolated step-down module is used in the power module, which can convert the power supply voltage into different levels of voltage according to the use requirements. Synchronous rectification technology greatly reduces the rectification loss at the output end of the switching power supply, thereby improving the conversion efficiency and reducing the heat generation of the power supply itself. The module has an input voltage of 10-90VDC, an output voltage of 1.5-60VDC, a maximum output current of 6A, a maximum power of 100W, a conversion efficiency of 97.5%, and an input anti-reverse connection function. Its range is 200 meters up and down.

[0039] Electric linear actuator

[0040] An electric push rod is a linear actuator driven by a DC motor. The motor's rotational motion can be decelerated by gear motion or worm gear motion, and then converted into linear motion through a lead screw nut, ensuring that the telescopic rod only retracts and does not rotate, and the linear reciprocating motion of the push rod is achieved by using the forward and reverse rotation of the motor. Based on the structure and motion analysis of the climbing robot in the previous article, a suitable electric push rod is selected as the driving component of the telescopic arm of the climbing robot. The electric push rod selected in this project has a rated voltage of 12V, a default thrust of 1200N, and a maximum stroke of 100mm. The designed drive mechanism enables the robot to climb at a speed of 5 meters per minute.

[0041] The drive motor is connected to the main controller through the motor controller and servo driver (motor drive) to realize the rotation of the motor and complete the telescopic arm movement of the climbing robot. The robot uses the Inpengfei DM570 stepper motor driver, which is based on the platform of TI's 32-bit DSP processing chip and adopts the internal PID current control algorithm design, with excellent performance. The driver adopts the new 32-bit ARM digital technology, built-in high-resolution settings, can drive 20 / 28 / 35 / 42 / 57 motors, supports common cathode, common anode, differential control, supports single / double pulse, receives 5V / 24V voltage control signal, and receives 20-50VDC voltage.

[0042] Mechanical Gripper

[0043] In order to enable the robot to climb the tower smoothly, a mechanical hook is designed, and an auxiliary hook and a collision plate are attached to enable it to climb the transmission tower freely. A pressure sensor (FSR) is used in the mechanical hook, which is installed at the contact point between each hook and the tower to detect the force between the hook and the tower, so that it can accurately hang the tower and determine whether the clamping posture is normal before proceeding to the next step. The FSR402 short-tail resistive pressure sensor produced by INTERLINKELECTRONICS is used as the sensing unit. It is separated by 2 layers. As the pressure increases, these active element points will touch the semiconductor, making the resistance smaller. The working voltage is 0~5V, and the single pressure range is <10kg.

[0044] Communication Module

[0045] Since the electric climbing robot is located on the power tower for climbing operations, the operator controls it under the tower, the communication distance is far, and the influence of electromagnetic interference needs to be considered. It is necessary to ensure that the wireless communication module has the characteristics of stable transmission quality, high speed and long distance. Commonly used industrial robot communication solutions include 2.4GHz wireless LAN, wireless router, and mobile communication 3G communication methods. This project adopts the communication method of wireless router, which does not require wiring, is easy to use, can adapt to complex network topology, and is the optimal path for load sharing. In addition, the router has high security, isolates unnecessary communication traffic, saves LAN bandwidth, and reduces the burden on the host. It has an antenna interface, which can achieve a point-to-point visible shortest transmission distance of 10Km, which is completely suitable for live operation scenarios.

[0046] Brake switch

[0047] Considering the safety performance of the telescopic arm and the position maintenance after power failure, a brake needs to be added behind the motor. Its function is to stop the joint from rotating immediately after power failure, which can not only ensure that the position of the telescopic arm remains unchanged after power failure, but also cut off the power in dangerous situations to avoid accidents. After comprehensive consideration, KEB's COMBIPERP1-110-05 was selected, with an aperture of 24mm, a weight of 0.35Kg, a braking torque of 4.5N·m, and a maximum allowable speed of 10000rpm.

[0048] The robot's main controller system is based on the STM32F407ZET6 microcontroller platform. When the robot climbs according to the gait planned by the host computer, the sensor installed on the robot's gripper senses whether the gripper is clamping the foot nail and transmits the data to the host computer. If the gripper is stable, the robot can continue climbing, otherwise it will reset to the previous position and clamp again. This can prevent the robot from falling off the angle steel tower due to the failure of both grippers to clamp during climbing.

[0049] Visual inspection platform design

[0050] When the robot climbs to a high altitude, it uses a camera instead of human eyes to transmit images of the high altitude climbing environment, analyzes the transmitted video, and quickly gives the next action instruction based on the data collected in previous experiments and the N sets of solutions that have been sorted out. In order to determine whether the robot gripper can successfully clamp the target foot nails deployed by the safety device, the robot is designed with a visual inspection platform to cooperate with the control system to perform robot climbing operations.

[0051] aInteractive control module

[0052] The main objects of the visual system include foot spikes and safety locks. The interactive control module needs to realize camera operation and selection of target objects of the system. By selecting the corresponding object, different processing programs are activated and different processing results are displayed.

[0053] bData processing module

[0054] Data processing is performed according to the manually selected object. When the robot wants to realize the climbing function, the system starts the foot spike recognition and positioning processing program, recognizes and locates the foot spikes on the climbing path and displays the processing results.

[0055] cOutput module

[0056] The processing results output by the visual system play an important role in the safety inspection of power towers. The system transmits the corresponding processing results and images through the output module, which can be further converted for robot control and background monitoring.

[0057] Robot lightweight visual inspection

[0058] Due to the complexity of the scenarios in which robots are deployed based on safety devices, the deployment factors of the robot platform should be taken into account when designing visual detection algorithms. Therefore, this project designs a lightweight detection algorithm based on improved YOLOv8. By improving the Backbone and Neck networks, the Backbone part integrates the C2f module with the CVPR2023SCConv module, and the Neck network replaces the original structure with the BiFPN network structure, introduces the P2 small target detection layer, and increases the bottom-up connection channel, which can effectively improve the detection accuracy of outdoor foot spikes.

[0059] The improved C2f_ScConv is used to replace the C2f module in the Backbone network. The SCConv module structure mainly consists of a spatial reconstruction unit (SRU) and a channel reconstruction unit (CRU).

[0060] The structure of SRU includes two operations: Separate and Reconstruct. Separate separates the input feature map X∈R(N×C×H×W) from the feature map with less corresponding information in the spatial content through group normalization, Sigmoid activation function, setting thresholds and other steps. The parameters of the feature map X are batch axis×channel axis×spatial height×width axis, and the input feature map X is group normalized to standardize the input features.

[0061] In the GN (group normalization) layer, the variance of the batch and channel space pixels is measured using a trainable parameter γ, and the relevant weight Wγ can be calculated using formula (1):

[0062]

[0063] After group normalization, the obtained correlation weights are mapped to the range of (0,1) through the Sigmoid function and gated using the threshold. The weights above the threshold are set to 1, and the weights below the threshold are set to 0. The obtained weights are set to W1 and W2 respectively. The feature X is multiplied element by element with W1 and W2 to obtain a feature with rich information. and less informative features Afterwards, the two features with different information are added element by element to reconstruct a richer feature and save space. Finally, the reconstructed feature X W1 With X W2 Connect to obtain the spatial reconstruction feature map X W .

[0064]

[0065] In the above formula, represents element-wise multiplication, represents element-by-element addition, and ∪ represents the Concat module.

[0066] The CRU structure mainly includes three operations: Split, Transform and Fuse. First, the spatial reconstruction feature map X W Perform a segmentation operation to divide the C channels of the feature map into two parts: αC and (1-α)C. Then use 11 convolution modules to compress the two channels after segmentation. The compressed channel features are divided into X up With X low Two parts. In the Transform stage, X up As up-conversion input, group-wise convolution (GWC) and point-wise convolution (PWC) are used to extract rich information features. low For down-conversion input, PWC extraction is performed.

[0067]

[0068] M G is the learning weight of GWC, are the PWC learning weights for the up and down conversion channels respectively.

[0069] After that, through the Fuse operation, the output features Y1 and Y2 of the upper and lower conversion channels are pooled to collect global spatial information, and the channel attention is used to generate the importance vectors β1 and β2 of the upper and lower global information. Finally, the output channel reconstruction feature is expressed as Y = β1Y1 + β2Y2. Compared with the traditional convolution module, all parameters in the ScConv module are in the Transform stage, so the number of parameters involved in the calculation is greatly reduced.

[0070] The BiFPN network structure is used for connection in the neck part. The BiFPN network structure introduces a bidirectional information transmission path, which can better integrate feature information of different scales and levels and improve the accuracy of foot nail detection in outdoor environments.

[0071] The robot's host computer software was developed in C++ language in the QT Creator environment, and a human-machine exchange interface was developed for the requirements of climbing the transmission tower spikes. The entire host computer uses three high-definition streams and supports functions such as zooming in and out. This interface is the main interface of the host computer, including real-time power display, pan / tilt control, and telescopic arm control functions.

[0072] The software system consists of a communication module, a user data module, an image display module, and a motion control module. The communication module uses the serial communication protocol to send control instructions to the main controller through the SDK library H264_DVR_SerialWrite function, thereby controlling the movement of each motor and completing the foot spike climbing task.

[0073] The user data module is responsible for displaying the real-time status information of the robot on the host computer interface, mainly including the position of the robot's telescopic arm, the voltage and capacity of the power battery. The label module is used in the UI design to display the collected data values ​​in real time and continuously update them.

[0074] The image display module mainly collects and displays the image information of the camera, and displays it in the host computer, which makes it easier for the operator to control the telescopic arm movement of the robot. The program is written using the SDK library that comes with the camera. First, initialize the SDK, bind the IP address, port number, user name, user password, and device information of the camera, and set the channel signal, communication method and other information.

[0075] The motion control module is the core of the robot control system, which mainly controls the telescopic arm of the robot. The robot is designed with multiple operation actions. The button module is used on the UI interface with corresponding text, and the program is written in C++ to connect the button module with the internal program so that it can perform the corresponding action.

[0076] It should be noted that, in this article, relational terms such as first and second, etc. are only used to distinguish one entity or operation from another entity or operation, and do not necessarily require or imply any such actual relationship or order between these entities or operations. Moreover, the terms "include", "comprise" or any other variants thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion, so that a process, method, article or device including a series of elements includes not only those elements, but also other elements not explicitly listed, or also includes elements inherent to such process, method, article or device.

[0077] The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and does not limit the present invention in any form. Although the present invention has been disclosed as a preferred embodiment as above, it is not used to limit the present invention. Any technician familiar with this patent will not depart from the scope of the technical solution of the present invention.

Claims

1. A transmission tower climbing robot device, comprising a safety device deployment robot, characterized in that: The safety device deployment robot includes a device box, a crash plate is fixedly connected to the bottom of the device box, a support seat is installed on the top of the crash plate, a transmission module is installed on the top of the support seat, a brake switch is installed on one side of the transmission module, a drive motor is installed on one side of the brake switch, a telescopic arm is installed on one side of the transmission module, an L-shaped hook is installed on the bottom of the telescopic arm, and an auxiliary hook is installed on one side of the device box.

2. The control system of a transmission tower climbing robot device as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that: A transmission tower climbing robot device according to claim 1, wherein the control system comprises: Main controller module, power module, motor drive module, wireless module, sensor module and visual recognition module; The working process of the control system is as follows: the visual module sensor collects information data and transmits it to the lower computer main controller through the I / O port; the lower computer main controller processes the data, determines the position of the foot nails, makes corresponding decisions, thereby determining the action plan, and sends control signals to mobilize the drive module to control the motor to coordinate the movement of the climbing robot; at the same time, two-way communication between the upper computer and the lower computer main controller can be achieved through wireless communication, and the collected information can be sent to the PC host computer, and the control signal of the PC host computer can also be sent to the lower computer control board to realize the control of each module of the climbing robot.

3. A transmission tower climbing robot device and control system thereof as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that: The visual recognition module establishes a connection between the camera and the host computer through the HTTP protocol. Based on the video data sent back by the camera, the operator analyzes and judges the video and makes decisions. He also sends movement or stop instructions to the robot's joint motors through different buttons on the control interface, thereby realizing the robot's climbing action.

4. A transmission tower climbing robot device and control system thereof as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that: The power module has an input voltage of 10-90VDC, an output voltage of 1.5-60VDC, a maximum output current of 6A, a maximum power of 100W, a conversion efficiency of 97.5%, and an input reverse polarity protection function. Its range is 200 meters.

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