The robot rides the insulated bucket-arm truck to a high altitude, approaches the insulator strings of the substation gantry, and then, with the toolkit it carries, fixes the vase piece to be replaced with one hand, rotates the vase to the right angle with the other hand, and then automatically puts away the toolkit when finished. One "hand" fixes the vase piece to be replaced, one "hand" rotates the vase to the right angle, the left and right "hands" work together to remove the deteriorated insulator and install the new insulator, and then automatically put away the toolkit when finished. ...... This is the working scene of the first international substation suspension insulator inspection and replacement robot system on June 2, which was previously developed by Guangxi Power Grid Company. The system was successfully developed independently by Guangxi Electric Power Research Institute (hereinafter referred to as "Guangxi Electric Power Research Institute").
"Compared with the traditional manual inspection, this robotic system takes less than 10 seconds to inspect each insulator piece and enables the independent replacement of insulators, which greatly reduces the labor intensity of front-line workers and greatly improves safety." Guo Lijuan, a first-class technical expert of Southern Power Grid Company, the project leader and senior engineer of Guangxi Electric Power Research Institute, introduced at the work site of the robot.
"In the past, manual inspection and replacement of insulator strings, the whole operation process is done at high altitude, especially in hot and sunny weather, it is very hard to carry out such physically demanding, operationally demanding and dangerous work at high altitude for a long time, which is the driving force for us to develop this robot instead of manual work." Guo Lijuan said that as the core business of ensuring the safe operation of the power grid, there are problems such as high danger and high labor intensity in the operation and maintenance of power grid equipment. In response to these problems, she led a technical research team to develop a "substation suspension insulator inspection and replacement robot".
In the absence of any precedent, Guo Lijuan led the team to develop the insulator inspection and replacement robot system, including the mobile lifting platform, the double-arm collaborative work system, and the special work toolkit. The technical achievement passed the project acceptance organized by Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in December 2022.
At present, the project has successfully realized the low and zero value inspection of suspension insulator strings and the independent replacement of single piece of deteriorated insulators in Nanning 220kV Shibu Substation, reducing the labor intensity and danger of manual tower inspection and replacement of suspension insulators, and realizing the "machine instead of man".
In addition, Guo Lijuan and her team have successfully developed the world's first "Insulation Gas Leakage Detection Robot", which solves the problem of traditional contact gas leakage detection requiring equipment blackout, increases the detection rate of gas leakage with electricity, and reduces detection time. No recurrence of gas leakage in the equipment after the treatment of leakage defects.
As the main innovation point of the "Key Technology and Application of Robot to Support Smart Operation and Maintenance of Power Grid Equipment", the insulator detection and replacement robot and the insulating gas leak detection robot were approved by the Chinese Electrical Engineering Society, and the appraisal committee, headed by Wang Yaonan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, concluded that "The project is technically difficult, has achieved a number of innovative technical results, and has reached the international leading level in the key technology of robot support for intelligent operation and maintenance of power grid equipment".
In the recently held 2023 Guangxi Science and Technology Award Conference, the two sets of robot system as the main innovation point of the project results "robot support grid equipment intelligent operation and maintenance key technology and application" won the second prize of the 2022 Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Science and Technology Progress Award.