A framework for power line inspection tasks with multi-robot systems from signal temporal logic specifications
This addresses the need for safe and automated inspection of power line infrastructures for electric companies, representing an incremental advance in multi-robot planning.
The paper tackles the problem of automating power line inspection by computing feasible trajectories for a fleet of quad-rotors using Signal Temporal Logic (STL) specifications, with simulations in MATLAB demonstrating effectiveness and paving the way for hardware tests.
Inspection of power line infrastructures must be periodically conducted by electric companies in order to ensure reliable electric power distribution. Research efforts are focused on automating the power line inspection process by looking for strategies that satisfy different requirements expressed in terms of potential damage and faults detection. This problem comes up with the need of safe planning and control techniques for autonomous robots to perform visual inspection tasks. Such an application becomes even more interesting and of critical importance when considering a multi-robot extension. In this paper, we propose to compute feasible and constrained trajectories for a fleet of quad-rotors leveraging on Signal Temporal Logic (STL) specifications. The planner allows to formulate rather complex missions avoiding obstacles and forbidden areas along the path. Simulations results achieved in MATLAB show the effectiveness of the proposed approach leading the way to experimental tests on the hardware.