Practical Applications of Automatic Image Analysis for Overhead Lines

This paper proposes novel techniques for automatically extracting information from overhead lines based on automatic image/video processing. Three application scenarios are presented: (a) detecting snow and ice coverage on insulators for overhead lines; (b) detecting swing angles of insulators; (c) quantifying the visibility of insulators at transmission lines with typical backgrounds. Experiments have been conducted on recorded videos/images of insulators (with different prototypes) for overhead lines in a remote test station in Norway. Results show that the proposed automatic image analysis methods are promising for extracting the status (snow/ice coverage, swing angle, visibility) of insulators and might be applied in the future for other components of the overhead line.