Design and Application of Rail-type Inspection Robot for GIS High Voltage Substation

In high voltage power system, with the gradual increment of SF 6 gas closed-end insulation composite appliance, the application of Gas insulated switchgear (GIS) becomes more and more widely accepted based on its high reliability, less maintenance, long maintenance cycle, and low failure rate (only 20% ∼40% of conventional equipment). However, the GIS has its inherent shortcomings, as a result of the SF6 gas leakage, external water infiltration, the conductive impurities as well as insulator aging factors, such as internal flashover. To this end, this paper designs a rail-type inspection robot for GIS substation. First, it analyzes the background of high voltage substation and GIS. Secondly, considering the distribution of GIS and the task of substation inspection, the paper gives the key components of rail-type inspection robot, such as straight walking components, turning and changing track component, partial discharge (PD) detection component. Thirdly, it proposes that the architecture of rail type inspection robot system is a network distributed, which includes three parts: the background layer, communication layer and terminal layer. In addition, it discusses in detail the motion control method of inspection, especially positioning control. Then it explains the software and hardware structure of the motion control system: Radio frequency identification (RFID) is used for motion positioning of inspection robots; the background layer controls the motion of the inspection robot and uses the background software to analyze the detection data. Finally, the paper proves that the inspection robot has good balance, flexible turning, and a large inspection range. The robot can completely inspect work well instead of staff.