A novel method for vegetation encroachment monitoring of transmission lines using a single 2D camera

The dangerous, overgrown vegetation/trees under high voltage transmission lines right-of-ways (ROWs) have caused severe blackouts/flashovers due to interference with power lines which leads to short circuiting among the conductors. Therefore, these dangerous encroachments are monitored periodically along the electrical distribution networks ROWs through visual inspection, or by airborne system. Each of these methods has its own attributes and limitations and have proved to be costly, time consuming and not much accurate. In these circumstances, it is necessary for the electrical utilities to review their vegetation management practices so as to avoid incidents of unintended encroachments. In tropical countries, overgrown vegetation is a common cause for power line failure. This paper proposes an innovative concept of utilizing a single camera for monitoring dangerous vegetation (trees, shrubs and plants, etc.) under transmission lines ROWs. The main focus is on using an imaging device (camera) integrated on each transmission pole to automate.