MANIPULATOR SYSTEM FOR CONSTRUCTING OVERHEAD DISTRIBUTION LINES

This paper describes the manipulator for live-line construction of hig h-voltage overhead power transmission lines (line voltage 6.6 kV) that is being jointly developed by Tokyo Electric Power and other companie s. It describes this system's development concept, makeup, functions, and design, as well as operability tests using actual-scale transmissi on line poles. In this research, development began in 1984. As the fir st step, a prototype model of a ground-mounted twin-arm manipulator wa s trial-manufactured in 1985. As the second step, in 1988 a truck-moun ted system was developed in which the twin-arm manipulator was mounted on a ''cherrypicker'' vehicle. As the third step, a practical system was developed based on these results. In the development of this syste m, the task of development of the individual items of equipment was sh ared as follows. Project leader, Conceptual design, Utility evaluation : The Tokyo Electric Power (Company, Inc.) Development of manipulator system: The Furukawa Electric (Co., Ltd.), Fuji Electric (Co., Ltd.) S ystem mounting vehicles: Aichi Sharyo (Co., Ltd.) Operability testing, development of construction methods: Kandenko (Co., Ltd.)