Montreal Tech Watch

Here’s a nice video of the newly introduced LineScout robot, winner of the 2010 Edison Award:

Designed in open collaboration with Canadian companies ODPN and BC Transmission, the HydroQuebec robot was to facilitate inspection of maintenance transmission lines. The lines can be energized, meaning they still carry full electric power, saving precious company resources, reducing downtime and safety risks. It can also do basic maintenance operations.

The robot is not autonomous: there is an operator controlling the LineScout with a real-time video feed nearby. It’s still a huge improvement though in infrastructure maintenance operations. Most of us have in mind HydroQuebec teams having to go with helicopters on top of those transmission lines, a dangerous, costly and long operation.