Lazy Q Ranch

I spent the day in La Grange, Texas at the Lazy Q Ranch, a 2,200-acre state-of-the-art training facility for power line workers. Here, one of my clients has constructed a test facility for their robot which helically wraps fiber optic cable around power lines. A series of non-energized power lines near ground level (~8ft) are strung between shortened power poles. This allows testers to closely observe the robot as it crawls along the cable and over and under the insulators at each pole. Seeing the robot, pictured behind me, in person was extremely valuable. Although I had seen many videos and CAD files of the design, I still found myself completely surprised by some of the features I discovered and behaviors I witnessed. Fireproof clothing and hard hats are required while in the test area.