Development of a Control Framework to Autonomously Install Clip Bird Diverters on High-Voltage Lines

Autonomous inspection and maintenance tasks with unmanned aerial vehicles on high-voltage lines require moving in a structured environment and detecting the object to interact with. A preliminary control framework for the autonomous installation of clip bird diverters on high-voltage lines is presented in this paper. The sketched framework shows initial designs and results and underlines functionalities to be developed in the future. The idea has been validated in simulation (employing the Gazebo software endowed with a physics engine) through a drone equipped with a 6-degree-of- freedom robotic arm and in real experiments through a drone equipped with a sensorized stick to be compliant with the environment. This last successfully inserted the bird diverter device on a mock-up structure with minimal disturbances on the aerial platform.