Patent attributes
Disclosed is a system for monitoring a power line. The system includes a ground unit and one or more airborne measurement devices for measuring distances between the power line and objects spatially located in proximities of the power line. Each of the one or more airborne measurement devices includes a computing hardware, one or more cameras for capturing images and a data memory for storing pattern-recognition software. The pattern-recognition software is executed on the computing hardware to process the images to identify a unique identifier attached to the ground unit. Each of the one or more airborne measurement devices maintains a line-of-sight with the ground unit during flight by tracking with computer vision the unique identifier attached to the ground unit.