Autonomous drone-robot positioning for marker ball installation on power transmission lines

Electrical power systems are critical for socioeconomic development, and marker balls are essential for preventing collisions with low-flying aircraft. Traditionally, the installation of such markers is performed manually by technical staff, exposing them to risks such as falls, electric shocks, and physical injuries. Drones, especially when integrated with modular robots, can efficiently reach installation points along transmission lines, overcoming the limitations of manual operations. Existing drone-based solutions rely on manual control, which requires highly skilled pilots and provides limited precision, and, to date, no studies have investigated autonomous flights for this task. To address these challenges, this paper proposes an autonomous drone-robot control system for marker ball installation. The proposed algorithm combines depth image processing based on filtering and line fitting with RGB color based processing, enabling automatic landing of the robot on the power cable. More precisely, an onboard computer processes the captured images and generates setpoints sent to the flight controller, responsible for controlling the drone’s movement. Experiments conducted in a controlled environment, with an average installation time of 43 s, demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed system. The results show that autonomous control reduces the need for pilot skill and enables safe and faster installation of marker balls.