Porcelain insulator crack location and surface states pattern recognition based on hyperspectral technology

A porcelain insulator is an important part to ensure that the insulation requirements of power equipment can be met. Under the influence of their structure, porcelain insulators are prone to mechanical damage and cracks, which will reduce their insulation performance. After a long-term operation, crack expansion will eventually lead to breakdown and safety hazards. Therefore, it is of great significance to detect insulator cracks to ensure the safe and reliable operation of a power grid. However, most traditional methods of insulator crack detection involve offline detection or contact measurement, which is not conducive to the online monitoring of equipment. Hyperspectral imaging technology is a noncontact detection technology containing three-dimensional (3D) spatial spectral information, whereby the data provide more information and the measuring method has a higher safety than electric detection methods. Therefore, a model of positioning and state classification of porcelain insulators based on hyperspectral technology is proposed. In this model, image data were used to extract edges to locate cracks, and spectral information was used to classify the surface states of porcelain insulators with EfficientNet. Lastly, crack extraction was realized, and the recognition accuracy of cracks and normal states was 96.9%. Through an analysis of the results, it is proven that the crack detection method of a porcelain insulator based on hyperspectral technology is an effective non-contact online monitoring approach, which has broad application prospects in the era of the Internet of Things with the rapid development of electric power.