ABB Robots Build the Grid as Drones Start Checking It

From 1942 linemen to drones in boxes at Lake District substations, here is how ABB robots assemble switchgear in Vaasa and how grid upkeep is changing.

INDUSTRIAL ROBOTICS

Chat With Robot

9/24/20261 min read

In July 1942 Arthur Rothstein photographed a rural electric co-op lineman in Hayti, Missouri, strapped to the top of a pole among the insulators. Getting power to farmhouses meant climbing a lot of poles like that one, and finding a fault usually meant driving along the line and looking up.

Lineman in a hat working at the top of a wooden power pole with insulators

A Rural Electrification Administration co-op lineman at work in Hayti, Missouri, 1942. Photo: Arthur Rothstein / Library of Congress via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Utilities later added bucket trucks, and on long rural lines they began flying helicopters low along the wires to spot damaged insulators or trees growing too close. Both still need a crew on site, and a helicopter is expensive to send up after every storm.

Yellow helicopter flying low over green hills and trees

A helicopter inspecting power lines near Ledgemoor, England. Photo: Philip Pankhurst / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

On September 23, Envirotec reported that SP Electricity North West will keep four drones in boxes at substations in England's Lake District for a 12-month trial. Pilots more than 200 miles away will fly them beyond line of sight, and eSmart Systems' software will check the footage for faults and overheating.

Red brick electricity substation building behind a gated wall

An electricity substation on Gulson Road, Coventry. Photo: Andy Mabbett / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Inspection covers only half the job, because the switchgear that sits in substations and factories has to be built too, and ABB builds some of its own with robots. At ABB Smart Power's factory in Vaasa, Finland, integrator JOT Automation installed a line with 20 ABB industrial robots plus SCARA units that assembles eight switchgear models without changing tools.

Long row of numbered white enclosed robot assembly cells in a factory hall

The robotic switchgear assembly line JOT Automation built for ABB Smart Power in Vaasa, Finland. Photo: ABB

Ten IRB 1200 robots scan and assemble parts there, an IRB 1600 and an IRB 2600 load and unload, and an IRB 910SC SCARA handles small assembly steps. Engineers first tested the whole line as a virtual model in ABB's RobotStudio, so the real one could be tuned without stopping production.

White ABB robot arm over a conveyor carrying switch components on fixtures

An ABB robot assembling switchgear parts on the Vaasa line. Photo: ABB

Put the two together and you get grid equipment that robots build and robots check. Our homes sit at the end of that grid, so I'd expect drones, and later ground robots, to find a loose connection or an overheating part before it turns into a Saturday night blackout.

ABB robot gripper above a bowl feeder and red parts bin inside an assembly cell

Close-up of an ABB robot picking parts in a switchgear assembly cell. Photo: ABB

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