IAESTE INTERNSHIP 2008 CONCLUDED

Date: 2008-11-07

Location: Lisbon, Portugal

The 2008 summer internship was organised around mapping applications. In particular, a new feature was designed for the User Interface of Power Line Maintenance Inspection [PLMI].

Nenad Filipovic, from Zagreb, Croatia, developed a real-time mapping application that allows the operator inside the helicopter to view the assets around it and select the lines that are to be inspected. From the screen features it is possible to navigate to nearby Points of Interest - such as substations - follow an over-head line track and mark towers as they are visited, and return to a previously visited location in case an anomaly needs review.

It is also possible to detect other nearby lines - which is an important contribution for safety as the helicopter manoeuvres to avoidecrossing with other lines above the line being inspected and to discriminate between close line - which is important at the substations where multiple similar lines follow parallel paths.

It was a 14-week internship, from August 4^th to November 7^th, the longest in Albatroz Engineering history, and the period proved long enough to integrate Nenad in the power line inspection requirements and design a working program that covered the specification, prototyping, development and test a full new feature on the interface.

Albatroz Engineering benefited from Nenad's autonomy and skill to advance his work and his commitment to a good outcome was put to test - and succeded ! - when trying the system under real power-lines where accuracy is mandatory.

PLMI now relates three different types of geographical references:

• the localisation of towers and other structures automatically computed by the system
• the coordinates supplied by the transmission and distribution operator
• the coordinates on the ground, measured by a static GPS and referred to survey charts.

All these should be match to a precision of up to ten metres (if the system has no inertial navigation unit) and a couple of metres (in case an inertial navigation sensor is present), while accomodating with different coordinate references and sources of data.

Above: first line travelled from the ground.

Below: the map near this location