Editorial: Special Issue on Applied Robotics for the Power Industry

摘要

Do you remember your last power outage? Even the shortest downtime reminds us, painfully, how critically we depend on a safe, efficient, and reliable power infrastructure for just about all aspects of our lives. Though invisible to most of us, this infrastructure for the generation, transmission, and distribution of electric power, such as hydroelectric dams and generating stations, power plants, or transmission lines, is of enormous scale. These systems are strategic and valuable assets; they are often located far away, in hard-to-reach locations and hostile environments; and the work itself entails risks. Yet these installations require periodic inspection, maintenance, and repair. These characteristics and challenges make the power industry an ideal candidate for robotic solutions. Indeed, much progress has been made in the past 10 years toward bringing robotics to the power industry, beyond the longstanding use of basic teleoperated systems in the nuclear power industry.