According to People’s Daily, on February 6, the third-generation flying de-icing robot (Model KICE-500) recently completed its first field application on the 110 kV Tianshi Line at an altitude of 1,000 meters in Cili County, Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province.
Developed by State Grid Hunan Electric Power Company, this robot deeply integrates a flight platform with a de-icing mechanism. Without the assistance of additional drones, it enables fully automated operation from aerial deployment to wire attachment with a single click, achieving precise high-altitude mounting in just 0.3 seconds.
It adopts a dual de-icing mechanism combining vibrating hammer impact and blade cutting. The robot can clear ice on 500 meters of power lines within 10 minutes, making its efficiency more than 10 times higher than manual de-icing.
Equipped with high-precision sensors and AI recognition algorithms, it can automatically identify power lines even in harsh weather such as heavy fog, rain and snow. It senses ice thickness and type in real time, intelligently adjusts de-icing force and speed, and protects lines from damage to the greatest extent.
The robot also features adaptive span-crossing technology, solving the pain point of large span distances in mountainous areas. After finishing de-icing on one span, it automatically flies to the next section, completely eliminating reliance on manual intervention for traditional de-icing equipment.
