Autonomous Inspection of Electrical Transmission Structures with Airborne UV Sensors – NASA Report on Dominion Virginia Power Flights of November 2016

Abstract: The report details test and measurement flights to demonstrate autonomous UAV inspection of high voltage electrical transmission structures. A UAV built with commercial, off-the-shelf hardware and software, supplemented with custom sensor logging software, measured ultraviolet emissions from a test generator placed on a low-altitude substation and a medium-altitude switching tower. Since corona discharge precedes catastrophic electrical faults on high-voltage structures, detection and geoloca…