This proposal is being submitted in response to the ECS Division SGER call for proposals of September 9, 2005. The project is dedicated to estimation of incipient faults in power systems using autonomous robots and sensor networks and therefore falls under the categories 1.a) Electric Power Systems, Incipient Fault Detection, and 4.a) Robotics and Sensor Networks, Autonomous Damage Assessment.
In the proposed project, a group of researchers will fly to New Orleans and will deploy a robot designed for assessment of health status of underground power cables. The robot can operate in autonomous as well as in supervised mode. The robot carries several types of sensors, which allow detection of incipient faults.
This project is original and innovative in many ways. For the first time, a robotic platform will be used to provide damage assessment of electric power cables in-situ after adverse environmental conditions. Also, for the first time, the data collected along the length of the cable will be used to correlate cable condition assessed from terminal measurements.
Intellectual merit. The proposed approach will make more realistic the vision of multi-robot systems that patrol distributed infrastructures, ensuring their safety and reliability. The post-flood status of the electric power cable system in New Orleans will be difficult to evaluate. No matter what remedial actions are taken after the disaster, the rebuilding of infrastructure will pose many questions regarding replacement of components, longevity of new components, and salvaging of already installed base. The proposed project will add knowledge to the mosaic of damage assessment conducted with both traditional and highly innovative methods. Answering the questions of what causes cable failures and at which rate has become particularly important for the New Orleans case. The proposed project will not only help answering these questions, but also will help determining the future design approaches for power industry.
Broader impact. The PI will use this project as a vehicle to demonstrate technology challenges and solutions in an undergraduate course (EE 401, Engineering Creativity and Innovation), in the graduate seminar (EE 500V, Energy Seminar), and in a K-12 robotics program that PI is supporting with Roosevelt High School in Seattle. The results of this project will form a fascinating story of the behavior of distributed infrastructure under adverse environmental conditions and will serve as a great example for the enhancement of engineering profession. The interdisciplinary efforts of civil, environmental, electrical, and mechanical engineers will be clearly presented to technical and to general audiences. It is worth noting that poster presenting the concept and preliminary results of the proposed approach took first place in International Student Poster Contest in the IEEE General Meeting 2005, San Francisco. The overall audience reaction was that if the proposed approach is highly promising and requires additional field studies at critical areas.
