Ordos Power Supply Co has achieved a major breakthrough in distribution line inspections with the deployment of a self-developed, lightweight AI-based flight path planning technology, ushering in an era of one-click, autonomous drone inspections.

The drones feature adaptive inspection capabilities, automatically planning routes based on pole and tower parameters. Using computer vision, they identify targets in real time, ensure precise imaging, and dynamically avoid obstacles such as trees, significantly improving safety and accuracy. After each mission, the system generates standardized inspection reports and conducts onboard, real-time defect analysis.

Zhang Yang, a technician at Ordos' power supply company, said that inspecting 17.8 kilometers of lines used to take days of manual work across difficult terrain. "Now a drone can finish the job in a single day, with AI detecting defects in real time and ensuring consistent inspection quality," he noted.

So far, the technology has completed autonomous inspections on three 10 kV overhead lines totaling 17.8 km, identifying 11 defects. Inspection efficiency has increased by about 75 percent compared with traditional methods, marking a fundamental shift from human eyesight to AI-driven power maintenance.