CSG's First Smart Operation Robot Now In Operation;Guangzhou - Li Fupeng was having a good day.

Mr. Li and his team were directing a robot with “eyes” and “hands” that was performing an switching out operation to a 10 kV Capacitor’s switch at the Anshan Station of Zhongshan Power Supply Bureau, Guangdong Power Grid Company, China Southern Power Grid.

When given a command, the robot, nicknamed "Astro Boy", slowly turned its wheels, moved and accurately stopped in front of the 10 kV switch. Then gracefully raised its “arms”, grabbed the correct switch and accomplished the switching out task.

No sooner had the robot finished the task that Mr. Li clapped his hands in excitement, exclaiming, "We can finally put him into operation".

Thus "Astro Boy" became the first operational robot of CSG and the first in the power industry.

Automation Replacing Manual Operation

As a smart operation robot for transformer substations developed by Mr. Li’s team, "Astro Boy" sports a plump figure, a pair of intelligent “eyes” and a flexible “arm”, assembling the animation image "Tetsuwan Atom", and that's why it is named after the character.

"Astro Boy" can automatically finish a switching out operation to 10 kV switches, even in emergency cases. If something goes wrong with a 10 kV switch and the control room cannot perform switching out operations, the traditional response is either to disconnect the next switch up the switching hierarchy, which will result in power outage in a larger area and further impacts power supply reliability, or to switch it out manually, which will possibly lead to the explosion of the switch.

Now "Astro Boy" provides a third option.

"Despite the small probability of switch explosions, it’s important to take safety issues seriously", said Qiu Guihong, Deputy Head of Qile Inspection and Maintenance Center. Mr. Qiu has years of experience in maintaining transformer equipment and is fully aware of the devastating impact of switch explosions.

He added, "With this robot, we don't have to worry about our safety any more, and the distribution grids can supply power even more reliably."

Staff need only have to give an order to the robot in the control room and it can automatically accomplish the switching out task. Even if there are disturbances on the site in which the robot cannot operate automatically, operators can still remotely control it to complete the task.

Flexible “Human Arm”

As early as 2013, staff at the Zhongshan Power Supply Bureau invented a smart inspection robot that could independently measure temperature and read meters.

Compared with this robot, "Astro Boy" is very different.

"Astro Boy's most significant difference is its arm. It is a bionic arm with five joints which is structured identically to a human arm", said Mr. Li, head of the project team, adding, "That’s why its arm is quite flexible."

Astro Boy’s “arm” is composed of two parts, the arm and the palm, with a total length of 0.8 meter. Such a length enables it to reach all switches in the high-pressure room. The robot’s "finger" is a highlight, as the key for "Astro Boy" to switching out is to grab a switch firmly.

There are two types of 10 kV switches, all-in-one and turn-to-separate. In addition, switches manufactured by different suppliers have different models. Therefore, the switching out operation is highly demanding for the robot's finger flexibility.

"In accordance with the models of switches, we have developed 'fingers' of three sizes which match most of the switches. When some transformer substations undertake upgrading and reconstruction, we will provide them a list of switch models for their choices, in order to prepare for the promotion of the smart operation robot", added Mr. Li.

A positioning error as small as two millimeters

Accurate positioning is another important task and also a challenge when developing "Astro Boy". Ordinary inspection robots are responsible only for daily inspection and temperature measurements, so they don't have to be programmed to position accurately. However, "Astro Boy" needs to recognize a series of tiny devices, such as switches, meters and indicator lights, on the switching board in the high-pressure room, which requires for the robot's pinpoint positioning capability.

In performing an emergency disconnecting operation, the robot is ordered to stop in front of a certain switch board first, and then position the switch and the button accurately with its mechanic arm.

"We have equipped 'Astro Boy' with laser probing and radio frequency identification technologies, which are used in combination to control the robot's positioning accuracy in front of the switching board”, explained Mr. Li, adding, "After a round of inspection as instructed by the map, it can remember the shapes and numbers of all these switches".

In the high-pressure room of the 110 kV Anshan Transformer Substation, the 10 kV switching board looks distinctive, as there are five red dots on its surface. A closer inspection of these dots reveals they are not ordinary dots, but electric labels that assist "Astro Boy" in improving its positioning accuracy and limiting any possible errors within two millimeters.

"Astro Boy" is an incredibly smart robot.

Staff need only input its "brain" with the data of inspection routes and the shapes of switches on the site and it can finish work automatically. In addition, its monocular dome camera has a strong recognizing function, so staff can change the data stored in its chip to let “Astro Boy” maneuver freely to different transformer substations, which is simple, useful and efficient.

The emergence of "Astro Boy" signifies that smart robots for grids have evolved from automatic inspection to automatic operation or remote operation devices, which is a qualitative leap in the function and performance of smart robots for grids.

“’Astro Boy’ has earned an Invention Patent and three Utility Models Patent”, said Mr. Li, adding, "Smart robots for grids will be more data-intensive and be able to perform diversified operations. We will make substantial efforts in this direction”.

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