Power lines

Power lines are physically large, stretching across open terrain, while also featuring narrow elements like cables that are just 2 mm in thickness. Add into the mix the restrictions involved in working at height, and you’ve got quite a challenge on your hands!

Rather than scaling these 60-meter-tall towers, our operator scanned from the ground. Artec Jet features a 300-meter scanning range, so it was possible to deploy in handheld mode, walking the length of the scene while capturing pylons, cables, and surrounding terrain. In less than an hour, they’d completed three laps of the area – enough to maximize point cloud density.

In the resulting dataset, thin, suspended wires that would normally appear as scattered noise or vanish altogether are rendered as continuous lines between pylons. This level of detail is all the more impressive given that it was captured from ground level. The lattice steelwork of pylons is equally well defined, with individual cross-members and connection plates clearly visible.

Artec Jet scans support infrastructure mapping and cable analysis (e.g. sag evaluation), providing valuable data for inspection and maintenance. This kind of result also shows how reliable, comprehensive power line scanning no longer requires complex operations or special flight permits. A single operator with Artec Jet can capture survey-grade data in short order.