To maintain the reliability, availability, and sustainability of electricity supply, electricity companies regularly perform visual inspections on their transmission and distribution networks. These inspections have been typically carried out using foot patrol and/or helicopter-assisted methods to plan for necessary repair or replacement works before any major damage, which may cause power outage. ...

In unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flights, power lines are considered as one of the most threatening hazards and one of the most difficult obstacles to avoid. In recent years, many vision-based techniques have been proposed to detect power lines to facilitate self-driving UAVs and automatic obstacle avoidance. However, most of the proposed methods are typically based on a common three-step approach: ...