Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography (한국측량학회지)

Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography (한국측량학회)
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Transmission Lines Rights-of-Way Mapping Using a Low-cost Drone Photogrammetry

  • Oh, Jae Hong (Dept. of Civil Engineering, Korea Maritime and Ocean University) ;
  • Lee, Chang No (Dept. of Civil Engineering, Seoul National University of Science and Technology)
  • Received : 2019.01.24
  • Accepted : 2019.03.06
  • Published : 2019.04.30
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Abstract

Electric transmission towers are facilities to transport electrical power from a plant to an electrical substation. The towers are connected using wires considering the wire tension and the clearance from the ground or nearby objects. The wires are installed on a rights-of-way that is a strip of land used by electrical utilities to maintain the transmission line facilities. Trees and plants around transmission lines must be managed to keep the operation of these lines safe and reliable. This study proposed the use of a low-cost drone photogrammetry for the transmission line rights-of-way mapping. Aerial photogrammetry is carried out to generate a dense point cloud around the transmission lines from which a DSM (Digital Surface Model) and DTM (Digital Terrain Model) are created. The lines and nearby objects are separated using nDSM (normalized Digital Surface Model) and the noises are suppressed in the multiple image space for the geospatial analysis. The experimental result with drone images over two spans of transmission lines on a mountain area showed that the proposed method successfully generate the rights-of-way map with hazard nearby objects.

Keywords

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Fig. 1. Flowchart of the study

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Fig. 2. Line extraction template for vertical lines

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Fig. 3. Transmission line point filtering in image space

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Fig. 4. Tree-trimming clearance guidelines(Ballard et al., 2007)

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Fig. 5. 3D buffering of each transmission line point for near feature detection

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Fig. 6. Test area (two spans)

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Fig. 7. Generated point cloud (before classification)

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Fig. 8. Rasterized elevation model (a)DSM and (b)DTM

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Fig. 9. Classified point cloud using height information(red: transmission line, green: non-transmission line, blue: the ground)

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Fig. 10. Transmission line extraction using different height thresholds (from left: 10m, 15m, 20m)

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Fig. 11. Information loss of transmission lines in raster processing

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Fig. 12. Line extraction example (a) drone image (b) morphological opening (c) noise removal

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Fig. 13. Transmission line filtering in the image space for different height thresholds (from left: 10m, 15m, 20m)

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Fig. 14. Estimated center line of transmission line points(top view)

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Fig. 15. Estimated zones along the transmission line (red color, width 27.4m) and border zone(green color, 21.2m from the wire zone)

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Fig. 16. 3D buffering for feature detection in security wire zone (simulated) (blue color: transmission line, green: rights-of-way, red: hazardous objects)

Table 1. Minimum vegetation clearance distances for alternating current voltages (meters)

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Table 2. Wire height from the ground(Korea Electric Association, 2012)

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Table 3. Specification of the drone and camera

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References

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