Expliner

A robot that travels on a pair of overhead power cables, taking 360-degree images to spot damage. It was trialled on Japanese transmission lines.

Price: —Not published
Height: —Not published
Weight: —Not published
Payload: —Not published
Speed: —Not published
Battery: —Not published

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Why it matters

Rolled along live high-voltage transmission lines and crossed spacers and clamps, so lines did not need to be switched off for inspection.

Real-world use

Trials on Japanese transmission lines (operator not named in sources used)

Timeline

First shown: 2010
Released: 2010

Introduced by HiBot

Maker

HiBotCompany · Tokyo, Japan

Public attention

A historic robot: no longer sold or in use, so it is not ranked against current machines.

No Wikipedia article of its own yet
No recent press stories listed yet

Measures how much people read and write about a robot, not how good it is. Measured 2026-10-14; same method for every robot. How it is measured

What’s inside

The parts the company has talked about publicly.

Movement: Wheeled base
How it runs: Assisted. Line crews drove it along the power cables by remote control while it shifted its own weight to get past obstacles.
Actuators & motors: Six 200 W brushless DC motors and six 40 W DC motors (12 DoF); rolls along a pair of live transmission cables and crosses spacers and clamps.
Sensors & vision: Arrays of CCD cameras with mirrors for 360-degree cable images, HD camera, infrared camera, proximity sensors, gyro, accelerometer, lasers.
Compute: Ten SH-2 32-bit RISC microcontrollers, an ARM M4 board and an 8-channel video acquisition board with SSD.
Battery & power: 12 V 40 Ah lead-acid batteries; about 8 hours.
Materials & build: Aluminium and carbon fibre.
Other details: About 95 kg; 1.68 km/h. Inspects high-voltage lines without switching them off.

From the maker

Expliner is the only machine from HiBot in the atlas.

Watch Expliner

Video: hibot Corporation on YouTube. Plays from youtube-nocookie.com when you press play.

Made, sold and where

Unit counts are usually company figures; analysts often disagree.

Price: Not published
How to get one: No official buying page found
Built: Not published
Sold or delivered: Offered by HiBot (now discontinued)
Where it is sold or used: HiBot, Tokyo, Japan
Customers and pilots: Trials on Japanese transmission lines (operator not named in sources used)

Sources

Figures come from press coverage. Every link below backs something on this page.

IEEE Spectrum Robotic Tightrope Walkers for High-Voltage Lines IEEE Spectrum Watch This Robot Crawl on a High-Voltage Power Line

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