An Aerial Robotic Platform for Vibration Damper Maintenance on Power Lines

Maintenance of power transmission lines, specifically the replacement of Stockbridge vibration dampers, is traditionally performed by skilled linemen due to the significant weights and fastening torques involved. While existing robotic solutions can perform these tasks, they rely on heavy infrastructure for deployment, adding significant logistical overhead. We present the first aerial robotic system capable of self-transporting to the conductor to perform end-to-end damper replacement. Our system features a specialized 5-DOF Cartesian manipulator integrated into a lightweight, wire-tensioned H-frame that minimizes flexibility under load. A key advantage of the proposed design is its versatility: without mechanical modification, the system can uninstall, retrieve, and install dampers of many sizes. The system has been validated in a real-world power line environment, and experimental results demonstrate that an operator can uninstall and install dampers ranging from 2 to 9.5 kg with an average precision of 1.5 mm while overcoming breakaway torques exceeding 200 Nm.