Development of a Spacer Bar Installing Robot for Six-Split Transmission Lines

In order to solve the high-risk factor and slow construction efficiency problems of installing spacer bars in six-split transmission lines manually, a six-split spacer bar installation robot is developed. Based on the combination of active wheels and compression wheels, the travelling mechanism of the robot is designed, and the six active wheels are arranged in an equilateral hexagonal shape, which can be adjusted by adjusting the pressure of the compression wheels to change the attitude adjustment in the travelling process. In order to improve the efficiency of the robot’s one time online work, designed the spacer bar storage device, the spacer bar through the ball screw to complete the feed. In order to reduce the installation complexity of the spacer bar, a four-degree-of-freedom planar robot arm is designed to achieve the compression operation of the six chucks of the spacer bar. The RTK and odometer are used to locate the robot at high altitude, so that the robot can be remotely monitored by the ground personnel in real time during the operation and receive the operation instructions. Through the performance test of the robot on the line, the results show that the robot is capable of travelling at a fixed distance on the six-split electric line and installing the six-split spacer bars, which can effectively reduce the risk of manual construction.