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Advances in vegetation management for power line corridor monitoring using


aerial remote sensing techniques

Conference Paper · November 2010


DOI: 10.1109/CARPI.2010.5624431 · Source: IEEE Xplore

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2010 1st International Conference on Applied Robotics for the Power Industry 1
Delta Centre-Ville
Montréal, Canada, October 5-7, 2010

Advances in Vegetation Management for Power


Line Corridor Monitoring Using Aerial Remote
Sensing Techniques
Zhengrong Li, Rodney Walker, Ross Hayward, Luis Mejias

hazards and expose electrical companies to significant


Abstract—This paper presents a comprehensive discussion of financial penalties.
vegetation management approaches in power line corridors In urban areas, vegetation encroachment is less serious than
based on aerial remote sensing techniques. We address three in rural areas as access is much easier and prompt
issues 1) strategies for risk management in power line corridors, maintenance can be achieved. Moreover, local councils and
2) selection of suitable platforms and sensor suite for data private land owners regularly maintain their trees facilitating
collection and 3) the progress in automated data processing
the overall maintenance process. However, in rural areas,
techniques for vegetation management. We present initial results
from a series of experiments and, challenges and lessons learnt
inspection and maintenance becomes difficult due to limited
from our project. access and large distances to cover. In these areas, traditional
calendar-based tree trimming is performed by operator. This
Index Terms—Power Line Corridor Monitoring, Vegetation process is time consuming, labor-intensive and expensive. It
Management, Unmanned Aerial System (UAS), Remote Sensing, also results in zones being trimmed more frequently than
LiDAR, Multi-spectral Imagery, Power Line Detection, Tree others, or not cut often enough. In recent years, remote sensing
Crown Segmentation, Tree Species Classification approaches have proven to be an alternative to traditional
methods. These include improved data collection using
I. INTRODUCTION satellite sensors [2, 10], airborne laser scanning system [3, 11],

T REES, shrubs and other vegetation are of continued a stereo vision system [4], and unmanned aerial systems
importance to the environment and our daily life. They (UASs) [5, 12]. Therefore, remotely sensed data have great
provide shade around our roads and houses, offer a habitat potential in assisting vegetation management in power line
for birds and wildlife, and absorb air pollutants. However, corridors.
vegetation around power lines can represent a significant risk This work is closely aligned with industry, with strong
to public safety, the environment and, is one of the main support and collaboration from Ergon Energy. In this paper,
causes of power outages. It is common knowledge that trees we present a comprehensive discussion of vegetation
falling across power lines are the largest cause of power management in power line corridor monitoring based on aerial
failures, causing widespread power outages and bushfires [1]. remote sensing techniques. We focus on discussing the risk
It is not surprising that vegetation management procedures in management strategy, selection of platform and sensor,
power line corridors become a significant maintenance cost advancement in automated data processing, and the challenges
for electrical companies. Currently, activities such as tree learnt from our project.
trimming and vegetation control are costly. For example,
Ergon Energy, one of the Australia’s largest electricity II. BACKGROUND
companies, currently spends $80 million a year inspecting and
managing vegetation encroachments on power lines. Correct This section provides a summary of our research covering
and efficient vegetation management not only reduces the the risk management strategy using aerial remote sensing
overall cost but also aids in continuous electricity supply by techniques, selection of platform and sensor, and automated
preventing damage to power lines through removal of tall- feature extraction from remotely sensed data.
growing species. Ineffective procedures can result in the loss A. Risk Management Strategy
of reliability in electricity transmission, produce serious
The reliability of electricity supply and distribution is of the
This work was conducted within the CRC for Spatial Information,
highest priority in power line corridor monitoring. A short-
established and supported under the Australian Government’s Cooperative term strategy is to identify and remove nearby objects (i.e.
Research Centres Programme, and sees collaboration between the Queensland buildings and vegetation) around power lines. Generally, the
University of Technology (QUT), the Australian Research Centre for
Aerospace Automation (ARCAA) and Ergon Energy Australia.
risk of manmade structures can be controlled through building
Zhengrong Li and Ross Hayward are with the Faculty of Science and regulations. However, vegetation is naturally growing and
Technology, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, QLD, particularly in rural areas the growth is unmanaged. Strong
4001, Australia (e-mail: zhengrong.li@qut.edu.au; r.hayward@qut.edu.au). winds and storms can bring branches or even entire trees into
Rodney Walker and Luis Mejias are with the Australian Research Centre
for Aerospace Automation (ARCAA, QUT), Brisbane, QLD, 4009, Australia contact with power lines. Unmanaged vegetation can also
(ra.walker@qut.edu.au; luis.mejias@qut.edu.au).

978-1-4244-6635-1/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE


2

grow up into power lines and cause bushfires. These problems heavy payloads. LiDAR systems are too heavy for
motivate the use of aerial remote sensing techniques for power small/medium sized UAS platforms. This limitation may be
line corridor monitoring. Specifically, detecting all vegetation overcome in the near future as there are already small LiDAR
from remote sensed data that have the potential to pose risks to systems in the market suitable for UASs. However, the
power lines and use this to guide the field workers for performance of these units in terms of the quality of data
vegetation clearance in the corridors. collected is currently well away from their full-sized
Ergon Energy has a long-time strategy of managing counterparts. When combined with LiDAR type systems
vegetation according to different species. The species they are UASs would represent the technology of choice for future uses.
interested in can be generally categorized as undesirable
C. Automated Data Processing
species and undesirable species. Species with fast growth rates
and that also have the potential to reach a mature height of As may already be evident from previous section, aerial
more than four meters are defined as undesirable species. remote sensing is a fast and cost-effective technique for power
These undesirable species often pose high risks to electrical line corridor mapping. There are some commercial data
infrastructure and therefore should be identified and removed. providers available in the market that can collect high quality
It is also worth mentioning that in the long-term maintenance LiDAR data and georeferenced imagery for general mapping
strategy low-growing trees or shrubs are encouraged because purposes. Compared to corridor mapping, automated and
they are expected to compete with tall growing species and intelligent information extraction from remotely sense data is
deprive the taller trees of light and nutrients. These low more challenging. One special need for power line corridor
growing species, along with the rare and endangered species, monitoring is to detect the objects of interest for further
are defined as desirable species that should be managed interpretation and decision making. The major objects of
differently. interest include power line assets and vegetation. Automated
data processing aims to automatically detect these objects
B. Selection of Platform and Sensor from aerial imagery, and try to extract more specific
Satellites and aircrafts are the most widely used platforms information such as vegetation species and height information.
for remote sensing in earth observing data collection. Current In this section, we briefly discuss the general methods in
satellite sensors are not the best choice for monitoring power automated data processing.
line corridors due to two critical limitations: the unfavorable • Power Line Detection
revisit time and lack of choices in optimum spatial and Risk assessment of power lines and adjacent trees is
spectral resolutions. At the most practical level, most meaningful only when power lines can be detected. A straight
collections of data gathered from satellites are available only line can approximate a power line segment in aerial images.
on predetermined schedules, and even those with an “on- Therefore, classic line detection algorithms like the Hough
demand” capability are also limited by their orbits and the transform may be used to detect power lines in images.
demands of other users. In contrast, airborne data collection However, while the Hough transform is an effective tool to
offers a much greater level of flexibility. An airborne system detect straight lines, it does not intelligently identify power
can capture data at any time of the day whereas satellites lines. Any linear objects will be detected, such as fences,
generally pass over one site at the same time of a day. Another edges of roads and buildings. Therefore, some prior
advantage of airborne platform is that different sensor knowledge should be used to improve power line detection [5].
payloads can be easily fitted, while the sensors launched on a For 3D LiDAR point cloud data, line detection can be
satellite are often not changeable. As a consequence, airborne conducted either by clustering similar features in a voxel [13]
systems can be regularly upgraded as sensor technology or mapping 3D data to two 2D planes (horizontal and vertical)
advances. Improvements to sensors include systems with and then roughly detecting the power line points in horizontal
higher spectral and spatial resolution, and advanced plane and reconstructing the catenary curve in the vertical
microwave or LiDAR sensors. In addition, higher spatial plane [14]. No matter which method is used, prior removal of
resolutions are easier to obtain from airborne platforms, due to non-powerline points (e.g. terrain, tree and building) will
their low altitude. A limitation which impedes large-scale always be helpful to reduce the error in power line detection.
airborne remote sensing applications is that the traditional • Tree Detection and Classification
piloted airborne platforms involve high operational costs. Detection of trees has been intensively studied particularly
Moreover, using piloted aircraft for power line inspection will in the remote sensing of forest environment. Whilst similar in
place the operators at a greater level of risk. concept, the environment in power line corridor is more
Remote sensors mounted on unmanned aerial systems complex because the background is cluttered with shadows,
(UASs) could fill this gap, providing a cheap and flexible way bare soil, shrubs and grass; all presenting irregularities that
to gather spatial data from power line corridors which can also need to be handled by the detection algorithm. Vegetation has
meet the requirements of spatial, spectral, and temporal a distinctive spectral signature, characterized by a low
resolutions. Recent development in the aerial vehicles reflectance in the visible part of the solar spectrum, and a high
themselves and associated sensing system make UAS reflectance in the near-infrared (NIR) region. Therefore,
platforms increasingly attractive for both research and incorporating NIR information is widely used in the remote
operational mapping [6, 7]. One of the main limitations of sensing community for the detection and classification of
using UASs is their ability to carry power-demanding and
3

vegetation. Combining LiDAR elevation data can further species in power line corridors requires significantly more
improve tree detection by removing low-growing grass and resources than are currently available, however, classifying
shrubs. For classification of tree species, object-based methods species in a given test area as a proof of concept is possible. In
are preferred as they are straightforward and have been shown this research, we focus on three dominant species in our test
to obtain higher classification accuracy in high resolution field: Eucalyptus tereticornis, Eucalyptus melanophloia, and
image classification [8]. To conduct an object-based Corymbia tesselaris. We abbreviate the species names to
classification, accurate individual tree segmentation is Euc_Ter, Euc_Mel and Cor_Tes. For each species 65 samples
required. Subsequent to this, a range of classification were used with 25 for training and 40 for testing.
algorithms can be used in the object-feature space.

III. DATA COLLECTION


Data collection in this study included gathering aerial data
as well as ground survey data. The first series of flights were
conducted by a local company. The image data were collected
by a high resolution digital 4-band multi-spectral camera
(DuncanTech MS-4100) with a DGPS/INS mounted in the
cargo area of a Piper Cub. The spatial resolution of the
collected imagery is around 15 cm. The second series of
flights were conducted by another local company using an Figure 2 Experiment test site
airborne LiDAR scanner mounted in a Cessna aircraft. The
LiDAR data was collected with a scan angle of ±30°with an IV. DATA ANALYSIS
average sample rate of 9 points per square meter. A separate In this section, we briefly introduce the developed
data collection has been conducted using two UAS platforms: algorithms and initial data analysis results from a series of
the V-TOL Aerospace BAT-3, and the ARCAA UAS platform experiments.
Eleanor. The sensors onboard two UAS platforms are natural A. Power Line Detection
color digital cameras (Canon IXUS 960IS and Canon 350D
We developed an algorithm to detect power lines in aerial
DSLR).
imagery [5]. A filter is designed to remove the background
noise and generate an edge map prior to the Hough transform
being employed to detect straight lines. After that, a
knowledge-based line clustering is performed in Hough space
to refine the detection results. The algorithm has been tested
on high resolution color images collected by the UAS
platforms. Figure 3 (a) shows an example of the detection
(a) Multi-spectral imagery collection system results. In general, the performance of the algorithm depends
on the quality of the image. Low spatial resolution and motion
blur are the two major problems for the failure of the power
line detection algorithm.
Compared to image based approaches, LiDAR is more
popular for power line survey since it can provide high density
point cloud data and does not reply on illumination conditions.
Moreover, LiDAR can more effectively generate accurate
(b) Lidar data collection system
elevation and terrain models, which can also help to remove
terrain points and other similar linear features (e.g. fences).
There are already some commercial products for detecting and
modeling power lines from LiDAR point cloud data (e.g. PLS-
CADD and TLiD). We have developed an algorithm to
classify terrain and object points by performing statistical
(c) UAS platforms: V-TOL BAT-3 (left) & ARCAA Eleanor (right) analysis on LiDAR intensity data [14]. After this classification,
Figure 1 Data Collection Systems the object points were mapped to a horizontal plane to create a
The ground survey was conducted in a 1.5 kilometres corridor 2D grey-level image and the Hough transform is employed to
in the towns of Murgon and Wondai in Central East Australia detect lines. By mapping the rough position of the detected
where the multi-spectral image and LiDAR data were lines in 2D image back to point cloud data, the power line
collected. The ground truth data of vegetation species were points are obtained, but we have not reconstructed the
obtained with domain experts’ participation. Figure 2 shows a catenary curve from 3D point clouds. Figure 3 (b) shows an
mosaic of the test area generated from aerial images acquired example of the detection results from point cloud data.
from the trial. It should be noted that classifying all types of
4

(a) power line detection from aerial imagery (a) original image

(b) power line detection from LiDAR point cloud


Figure 3 Examples of Power Line Detection
(b) tree crown detection and segmentation
B. Tree Detection and Classification
We developed an algorithm to detect and delineate tree
crowns from multi-spectral imagery by using spectral band
ratio as input to a pulse coupled neural network, followed by
morphological reconstruction [15]. The algorithm achieved a
detection rate of 96% and a segmentation accuracy of 75.2%.
The failure cases are mainly due to the under-segmentation of
tree clusters. Some tree crowns are very sparse and present
low contrast to the background which makes it difficult to
detect them. Combining LiDAR data can help to improve tree (c) classification map (species are represented using different colors)
segmentation provided the density of points is sufficiently Figure 4 Example of Individual Tree Segmentation and Species Classification
large. Figure 4 (a) and (b) shows an example of multi-spectral Table 1 Confusion Matrix and Classification Accuracy
imagery and tree crown segmentation. Actual Predicted Category Classification
In the tree species classification experiments, texture Category Euc-Ter Euc-Mel Cor-Tes Accuracy
features were extracted from each manually segmented tree Euc-Ter 15 12 13 0.375
crowns and a supervised machine learning technique is used to Euc-Mel 10 26 4 0.65
Cor-Tes 8 2 30 0.75
identify tree species based on empirical data. A support vector
machine (SVM) is used in this study, which is very popular
V. TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT AND CHALLENGES
and considered as the best performing inductive machine
learning technique. The classification model is built by The major technological contributions of this project are: 1)
training a SVM using a RBF kernel. Table 1 shows the Evaluation of small fixed-wing UASs and commercial
confusion matrix and classification accuracies when Local available multi-spectral and LiDAR sensors for data
Binary Patterns (LBP) [9] are used to characterize textures. collection; 2) algorithm developed for automatic power line
Figure 4(c) shows an example of a classification map. It detection from aerial imagery and LiDAR point clouds; 3)
should be noted that selection of appropriate feature algorithms developed for individual tree crown detection and
descriptors (e.g. textures) is critical for all image classification delineation; 4) evaluation of machine learning techniques for
problems [16]. To further improve the results of tree species object-based tree species classification. Our field trial and
classification, feature descriptors with highly discriminative experimental results have demonstrated considerable potential
power should be developed to model tree species. Moreover, and merit of applying aerial remote sensing and computer
trees can often appear differently in different seasons and even vision techniques to assist vegetation management in power
the same tree species may vary due to their health status. The line corridors. However, there are still some challenging
data that was available did not provide the opportunity to problems and gaps between research and real application.
classify the same vegetation under different conditions. These challenges include:
Therefore, more variables may need to be considered to model • Reliable Data Collection Using Small UASs
a specific tree species accurately. The environment around power line corridors is very
complex, making it difficult to navigate an UAS over large
and discontinuous networks. The stability and control issues
associated with small UAS's flying at low altitudes are still
5

challenging. It is worth noting that new approaches should be VII. REFERENCES


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taking into account the sensor field of view (FOV) in the flight Walker, "Evaluation of aerial remote sensing techniques for vegetation
management in power line corridors," IEEE Transactions on Geoscience
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emerging challenge for the remote sensing community. W. Boles, "Investigation of fish-eye lenses for small-UAV aerial
However, it also provides the opportunity to increase the photography," IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing,
reliability of the information extraction for robust operational vol. 47, pp. 709-721, 2009.
[8] T. Blaschke, "Object-based image analysis for remote sensing," ISPRS
performance and decision making in corridor monitoring (e.g. Journal of Photogrammetry & Remote Sensing, vol. 65, pp. 2-16, 2010.
improved classification, increased confidence and reduced [9] T. Ojala, M. Pietikainen, and T. Maenpaa, "Multiresolution grey-scale
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24, pp. 971-987, 2002.
classification is clear, how best to combine data of different
spatial resolutions and is still an open issue. Moreover, fusing Papers from Conference Proceedings (Published):
multi-temporal data for dynamic corridor monitoring is also [10] A. M. K. Beltrame, M. G. M. Jardini, R. M. acbsen, and J. A. uintanilha,
"Vegetation identification and classification in the domain limits of
very important in the future work. powerlines in Brazilian Amazon forest," in IEEE International
• Real-time Data Processing Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2007, pp. 2314-2317.
Currently, processing for object recognition has been [11] S. Clode and F. Rottensteiner, "Classification of trees and powerlines
from medium resolution airborne laserscanner data in urban
designed for off-line use. Data is collected, stored in a environments," in APRS Workshop on Digital Image Computing
repository and analyzed at some later time. However, some Brisbane, Australia, 2005.
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inspection - a uav concept," in The IEE Forum on Autonomous Systems
information available to assist in the decisions made by the London, United Kingdom, 2005
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be identified where the collection of additional data might be reconstruction using airborne lidar data," in ISPRS Laserscanning 2009
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advantageous, then the flight plan of the UAS can be modified.
[14] Y. Liu, Z. Li, R. Hayward, R. Walker, and H. Jin, "Classification of
Alternatively, the real-time identification of regions outside airborne lidar intensity data using statistical analysis and Hough
the immediate vicinity of the power-line where vegetation is transform with application to power line corridors," in International
sparse could be used to reduce the resolution of data stored. Conference on Digital Image Computing: Techniques and Applications
Melbourne, Australia, 2009.
Questions concerning the algorithms and computing [15] Z. Li, R. Hayward, J. Zhang, Y. Liu, and R. Walker, "Towards
architectures that are best suited to increase the autonomy of a automatic tree crown detection and delineation in spectral feature space
UAS capturing significant amounts of data need to be using PCNN and morphological reconstruction," in IEEE International
Conference on Image Processing, Cairo, Egypt, 2009.
addressed. [16] Z. Li, R. Hayward, J. Zhang, H. Jin, and R. Walker, "Evaluation of
spectral and texture features for object-based vegetation species
VI. ACKNOWLEDGMENT classification using support vector machines," in ISPRS TC VII
Symposium Vienna, Austria (IAPRS vol. 38 part 7A), 2010.
The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of [17] S. Mills, J. Ford, and L. Mejias, "Vision based control for fixed wing
Bred Jeffers from Greening Australia and David Wood from UAVs inspecting locally linear infrastructure with skid-to-turn
maneuvers" in The International Conference on Unmanned Aerial
Ergon Energy for their assistance in the field survey. The Vehicles, Dubai, UAE, 2010.
contributions of Steven Mills, Troy Bruggemann, Jinhai Cai,
Marcos Gerardo, Yuee Liu, Jinglan Zhang and Jason Ford
from their original work are also acknowledged.
6

VIII. BIOGRAPHIES
Zhengrong Li received the B. Eng. and M. Eng.
degree in 2003 and 2006 respectively from
Northwest A&F University, China. He was
appointed an assistant lecturer at the College of
Information Engineering, Northwest A&F University
since 2006. He is currently working toward the Ph.D.
degree at the Queensland University of Technology
with the support of Cooperative Research Centre for
Spatial Information (CRCSI). His research interests
include remote sensing image processing,
computational intelligence, and pattern recognition.

Rodney A. Walker (M’01) was born in Cairns,


Australia, in 1969. He received the B. Eng. degree in
electronic systems and the B.App.Sc in computing
from Queensland University of Technology in 1992.
He completed his PhD in satellite navigation from
the same institution in 1999 after spending a year
studying at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in
the UK. From 1998 to 2005 he was responsible for
the GPS payload on Australia’s Federation Satellite
working closely with NASA JPL during this time.
Since 2000 he has directed his interests to ICT in aviation and created the
Australian Research Centre for Aerospace Automation which now has over 30
full-time staff. He is also a private pilot with NVFR and Aerobatics
endorsements.

Ross Hayward (M'00) received the B.Sc. degree


from the Australian National University (ANU) in
Canberra, Australia in 1983, a Graduate Diploma in
Computer Science and a Phd. in connectionist
systems from the Queensland University of
Technology Brisbane, Australia in 1993 and 2001
respectively. He has been a lecturer at QUT since
2002 teaching in the areas of artificial Intelligence,
programming languages and computer architecture.
He is also a member of the IEEE Computational
Intelligence and Computer Societies and regularly organizes QUT's
participation in the southeast Queensland computational intelligence chapter.
His areas of interest include computer vision and machine learning for robotic
platforms.

Luis Mejias (M’07) received the B.E. degree in


electronics from the Universidad Nacional
Experimental Politécnica, Barquisimeto, Venezuela,
and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in
telecommunication systems, and robotics and
automation, respectively, from the Universidad
Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
While completing the Ph.D. degree, he was
leading the team in vision-guided unmanned aerial
vehicle (UAV) for surveillance and visual
inspection. He gained extensive experience in
unmanned aerial vehicles and, in particular, autonomous helicopter platforms,
investigating computer vision techniques for control and navigation. Dr.
Mejias is currently a Lecturer in Aerospace Avionics at Queensland
University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Australia, and Research Scientist
in Unmanned Aerial Technologies at the Australian Research Center for
Aerospace Automation at QUT.

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