Teleoperated system for live power lines maintenance

Outage-free maintenance of electrical power lines have been developed and used throughout the years. In these techniques workers have to work near energized components with hazard of electric shock and falls. In this context, a teleoperator system is being developed to increase the safety of the workers and the overall efficiency. It counts with two hydraulic-driven masterslave teleoperated manipulators on top of an insulated boom over a truck. The operator commands the manipulators from a cabin on the truck via a pair of master arms, and it receives visual feedback through a stereo vision system. Multimedia display, voice recognition and synthesis, stereo vision and force-feedback are some of the features being implemented in order to achieve telepresence of the operator. The paper addressed the implementation of these features on a teleoperation system prepared to work in a semi-structured hazardous environment performing repair and maintenance related tasks.