PKAMNet: A Transmission Line Insulator Parallel- Gap Fault Detection Network Based on Prior Knowledge Transfer and Attention Mechanism

Insulator parallel gaps in a transmission line protect the insulator from arc burn and provide protection from lightning. Detection of insulator parallel-gap faults based on aerial inspection images of transmission lines may be hindered by various factors, such as complex background, scale distortion, and occlusion. In this study, we propose a prior knowledge transfer and attention mechanism network (PKAMNet) to detect faulty insulator parallel gaps. First, the capability of PKAMNet to learn the features of different types of parallel-gap faults is improved by constructing a prior knowledge transfer model based on visual saliency. Owing to the difficulty of effectively expressing the features of the fault target due to the deviation of the shooting angle and complex background of the inspection image, we enhance the feature expression ability of the fault area by embedding the coordinate attention block. Additionally, the parameters of the detection network are simplified, and the modules are optimized to improve detection efficiency. Comparison results on 3-year aerial inspection videos of 500 kV high-voltage transmission lines show that PKAMNet has a high detection accuracy and can ameliorate the phenomenon of missed and erroneous detection caused by insufficient expression of parallel-gap faults.