Autonomous Wire Inspection Unit

Abstract

Frequently, faults can be hard to spot in underground and tunnel based electrical wiring systems and may require time-consuming excavation or manual examination. The design and development of an Autonomous Wire Inspection Unit (AWIU) which uses a tracked robotic rover, non-contact AC field sensing, an encoder-based distance measurement, wireless movement control and real-time video monitoring for detecting and locating faults in a single underground or tunnel based electrical line is presented. The aim of our proposed system is to reduce human intervention into unsafe areas in the tunnel and provide a low-cost system to determine possible location of a wire break. The hardware architecture of our system comprises of an ESP32 Dev Module, ESP32- CAM, L298N motor driver, tracked rover chassis, battery supply and a non-contact voltage detection circuit including a spiral pickup antenna and three BC547 amplification stages. The ESP32 is a perfect choice for this prototype because of its Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (Bluetooth Radio) capabilities and embedding power-processor capabilities is achieved with low power consumption and the control of inductive DC motor loads, is supported by the L298N motor driver. The methodology is prototype-driven engineering process, with the following testing sequence: testing of the sensing circuit, motor control, communication links, encoder feedback, and video stream, before integration. The principle of detection is by the presence or absence of the electromagnetic field around an energized conductor. If there is a field listed, then the wire will be assumed to be continuous. If the field is lost, then a possible fault event is identified and the distance travelled is noted as the fault location. The rover and the remote-control, real-time video monitoring, wireless voltage sensing and fault indication are functionally tested. It is demonstrated how the system can be used practically for safe underground wire monitoring