Flying robot takes on ice-covered power lines in Hunan

A domestically-made robot capable of flying to power lines and removing ice was put to work recently in Cili county, Zhangjiajie, China's Hunan province, offering a new solution for safeguarding power grids during extreme winter weather.

The KICE-500 de-icing robot, developed by Changsha-based Hunan Disaster Prevention Technology Co Ltd, completed its first real-world operation earlier this week. It autonomously cleared ice from a 500-meter stretch of ground wire in just 20 minutes, marking a breakthrough in maintaining power infrastructure in hard-to-access mountainous areas.

According to the company, the robot's key innovation lies in its fully autonomous operation. Equipped with integrated sensors and recognition technology, it can navigate along power lines, precisely position itself, attach automatically, remove ice, and travel between transmission towers without human intervention.

Designed for complex terrain, the robot can latch onto lines at angles of up to 45 degrees, overcoming a major challenge in mountainous regions. Using a dual "cutting and crushing" technique, it removes more than 95 percent of ice layers with thicknesses of up to 18–20 millimeters, it added.

Operational data is transmitted in real time via a high-definition visualization system, enabling ground crews to monitor progress remotely from a control center.

The company said it plans to further improve the robot's endurance and stability under extreme conditions and expand deployment to high-altitude, ice-prone areas, supporting larger-scale applications in the future.