Aerospace and Electronic Systems - May 2019 - 55

accuracy and low false alarm probability. In addition, the
detection algorithm must report power lines in a timely
fashion so that there is enough time for pilots to react [3].
PLD is a challenging problem. One of the factors making it challenging is the complex and cluttered background
with cloud, trees, grasses etc., as illustrated in Figure 3.
In addition, power lines in aerial images have some
unique features [4], [5]. First, power lines appear very
thin. Second, they can be approximated reasonably well
by straight lines from overhead view. Third, a power line
usually has uniform brightness as shown in Figure 3. On
one hand, these features make PLD more challenging. On
the other hand, these knowledge can be leveraged to help
design PLD algorithms.

MACHINE LEARNING AND DEEP LEARNING
In recent years, driven by the greatly increased amount of
data and computing power, machine learning and deep
learning have attracted much attention from both academic
field and industries. They have provided significantly better
performance than traditional methods in many fields, such
as computer vision [6], medical imaging [7], and Go
[8]. Compared to machine learning algorithms, deep learning model can automatically learn effective features.
In addition, although it takes time to train an algorithm,
it works quite effectively in detection once trained properly.

Figure 1.
Examples of helicopters after striking power lines [2]. Left: Bell
206B helicopter crashed near Forbes on October 31, 2014. Right:
Bell 206B helicopter crashed near Dunedoo on November 22, 2004.

MAY 2019

Some researchers have started to apply machine learning
and deep learning to PLD. However, this field has yet been
fully explored.

MAIN STUDIES ON PLD
There are different objectives in PLD. An objective is
detecting and locating power lines in images in order to
remind pilots. Another objective is recognizing images
which contain power lines and in this case there is no need
to locate power lines.
Various approaches have been proposed based on
different demands. There are generally three kinds of
PLD methods, namely laser-based [1], radar-based [9],
and image-based approaches. This survey focuses on
image-based methods.

PLD BASED ON TRADITIONAL IMAGE PROCESSING
METHODS
A lot of PLD methods using traditional image processing
techniques have been proposed. There are two ways to
detect power lines, either as straight lines or as objects.

Figure 2.
Warning spheres on power lines near Shanghai Pudong International Airport.

IEEE A&E SYSTEMS MAGAZINE

55



Aerospace and Electronic Systems - May 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Aerospace and Electronic Systems - May 2019

Contents
Aerospace and Electronic Systems - May 2019 - Cover1
Aerospace and Electronic Systems - May 2019 - Cover2
Aerospace and Electronic Systems - May 2019 - Contents
Aerospace and Electronic Systems - May 2019 - 2
Aerospace and Electronic Systems - May 2019 - 3
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Aerospace and Electronic Systems - May 2019 - Cover3
Aerospace and Electronic Systems - May 2019 - Cover4
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