“Extensive operational statistics indicate that external‑force‑induced damage to transmission lines has become a significant threat to the reliability of power supply and the safe operation of the grid. With the ongoing development of economic and infrastructure projects, construction activities involving large specialized vehicles—such as cranes, concrete pump trucks, excavators, and pipe‑jacking machines—near transmission lines or beneath their right-of-way are becoming increasingly frequent; even minor lapses can lead to external‑force incidents. In 2015, a certain region in Jiangsu Province experienced more than a dozen cases of transmission‑line damage caused by crane operations and pipe‑jacking work.”

——A certain power grid in Jiangsu Province

Customer Instructions

As the “major arteries” for interregional power transmission, transmission lines—due to their extensive coverage and considerable length—are constantly exposed to external threats such as unauthorized operations by construction machinery. At present, incidents of circuit tripping and tower collapses caused by collisions between cranes, excavators, and other heavy equipment have become increasingly frequent, making them the primary risk to the safe operation of the power grid.

Business Challenges

Due to the poor effectiveness and unfavorable economic and technical performance of conventional measures for preventing external damage, safeguarding transmission lines against external forces remains one of the most pressing challenges in ensuring their safe operation. There is an urgent need to innovate the functionality, application strategies, and management models of technical preventive measures, thereby enhancing the targeted, timely, and precise control of construction‑machine‑related external‑damage hazards, fundamentally eliminating the potential hazardous behaviors of such machinery, and laying a solid foundation for the secure operation of transmission lines. 
High reliance on personnel on duty: Traditional video surveillance requires dedicated personnel to monitor feeds in real time and relies solely on post‑event review of recorded footage, making it difficult to provide continuous, round‑the‑clock early warnings. 
Limitations of single-line laser scanning: The original laser‑based solution employs a single‑line detection approach, and its scanning‑type architecture suffers from a relatively high failure rate, being susceptible to environmental interference such as rain, fog, and dust. 
Weak on-site interaction skills: After an anomaly is detected, on-site real-time alerts cannot be issued, and there is no direct reminder or voice‑communication mechanism for operational personnel. 
Hard-to-Reach Management Gaps: Mobile construction machinery is frequently relocated, making it difficult for conventional manual inspections to provide continuous coverage across all time periods and throughout the entire corridor.

Current Market Solution Comparison

Field tests have demonstrated that the 4D radar–gun‑camera solution outperforms laser‑plus‑dome‑camera and camera‑only approaches in terms of early‑warning timeliness, coverage, environmental robustness, and interactive capabilities, making it the superior technical safeguard for preventing external damage to transmission lines.

Radar-based solution

Actual Radar Installation Diagram

Scheme Composition

The entire system is centered on the SPC865 4D millimeter-wave radar for perception and comprises four components: front-end sensing, power supply, a central control room, and mobile communications, thereby establishing a closed-loop workflow that spans from on-site detection to centralized alarm notification.

On-site equipment: On-site installation includes one SPC865 4D height‑measuring radar, one 2‑megapixel digital camera, one 4G router, one audio‑visual alarm system, and one public‑address system.

Power supply for on-site equipment: A power generation system comprising three 100-W monocrystalline solar panels ensures the 24-hour continuous operation of the tower-mounted image analysis and recognition equipment, audio‑visual alarm devices, on-site microphones, and 4G mobile communication integration control units. To guarantee reliable nighttime power supply, a pair of 100 Ah batteries has been integrated into the system.

Data center equipment: One server, one firewall, and one optional SMS modem kit; the central monitoring center runs platform software that enables real-time preview, alarm‑triggered recording, device maintenance and operations, and the push of SMS and voice alerts.

4G Mobile Communications: The field terminal connects to the monitoring center server via a mobile 4G network, and the server must have a static IP address to ensure that the communication network remains operational even after the terminal loses power.

Radar Deployment Plan and Coverage

Installation location: 
The crossarms of transmission towers or standalone poles shall be oriented with their normal vectors facing the monitoring corridor. 
Coverage Area: 
Customizable three-dimensional monitoring area, approximately 800 meters in length and with an average width of 30 meters; 
Device Collaboration: 
Upon radar activation, the system automatically triggers the gun turret, audio‑visual alarms, and public address equipment, generating an immediate on‑site alert.

Applicable scenarios: 
Radar 4D with three beams provides full‑area coverage, and its detection zone is configurable, making it suitable for over 80% of line‑side applications.

Introduction to Radar Parameters

Nare Technology’s SPC865 4D millimeter-wave radar–radar‑vision integrated intelligent monitoring system for preventing external damage to transmission lines is an 80 GHz 4D millimeter-wave radar solution specifically designed for safeguarding transmission corridors against external threats. Centered around the SPC865 radar as its core sensing unit and seamlessly integrating high-definition visual cameras, the system innovatively achieves a fully automated closed-loop workflow: “radar detection → visual snapshot capture → coordinate transformation → distance calculation → tiered alarm triggering → proactive early warning.” 
System Highlights: 
Upgrading from “2D imaging” to “4D radar–vision fusion,” enabling all‑dimensional perception of distance, angle, velocity, and altitude. 
Upgrading from “passive viewing” to “active sensing,” it employs physical sensors to enforce distance constraints, rather than relying on image‑based algorithms for estimation. 
Upgraded from a “single-device” solution to an integrated radar‑vision system, with the radar handling precise distance measurement and the vision system responsible for object classification and evidence collection.

Customer Benefits

1. Achieve “unmanned operation and automated early warning”: The system has been upgraded from “manual real-time monitoring” to “targeted post‑alarm review,” reducing manual screen‑watching effort by more than 80%. Intelligent alerts are directly pushed to the mobile devices of operations and maintenance personnel and to the dispatch platform, enabling sub‑second response to potential hazards, significantly lowering routine line‑inspection costs, and comprehensively enhancing O&M management efficiency.

2. From “report upon seeing” to “report only when crossing the line”: 4D point cloud and visual image pixel-level registration, with a proprietary coordinate transformation that precisely computes the three-dimensional distance from the target to the wire; alerts are triggered only when intrusion actually occurs within the designated area, effectively reducing false alarms by more than 90%.

3. Multi-party collaborative real-time alert closed-loop: Alarm notifications are simultaneously sent to on-site audio‑visual devices, the operations and maintenance personnel app, and the dispatch center platform, establishing a complete business closed loop that spans “detection → alerting → response → recording.” 
4. Achieve “Proactive Equipment Status Awareness and Multi-Layered Protection”: The system features a built-in automated self‑diagnostic mechanism, including obstruction detection (automatically identifying foreign objects blocking the antenna surface), tamper detection (with an integrated shell‑removal alarm), and a low‑temperature self‑heating function that activates automatically in extremely cold conditions down to –40°C. The device can proactively report its operating status and alert to anomalies, ensuring stable 24/7 online operation even in harsh, unattended outdoor environments.