Robotic system obstacle recognition

Abstract

The disclosed systems for suspending cable (e.g., fiber optic cable) from an overhead powerline may include a payload subsystem for housing and dispensing a cable along an overhead powerline, a rotation subsystem for winging the cable from the payload subsystem around the powerline, an extension subsystem for moving the payload subsystem to avoid obstacles, an obstacle detection subsystem for automatically detecting obstacles encountered along the powerline, a drive subsystem for driving the system along the powerline, and at least one processor for controlling the payload subsystem, rotation subsystem, extension subsystem, obstacle detection subsystem, and drive subsystem in a manner that avoids obstacles as the system moves along the powerline. Various other related systems, devices, components, and methods are also disclosed.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.