Robots in substations: what actually pays off?

We piloted a remote racking robot and a quadruped inspector at two stations. The racking unit has been a clear win: less arc flash exposure, smoother lockout steps, and quicker breaker turns during outages. It needs clean floor rails and disciplined procedures, but one trained tech can do what used to take three.

The quadruped was mixed. It handled thermal and acoustic checks, but struggled with gravel, cable trenches, and swing gates. GPS is useless, LTE is spotty near steel, and battery swaps ate time. The bigger gap was workflow: lots of video, few actionable tickets. Reflections on bushings fooled the thermal, and we spent hours triaging false alarms.

What quietly worked was simpler automation: fixed thermal cameras, a handful of wireless temperature and SF6 sensors, and auto-ingest to the CMMS. Also, auto-download of relay events and scripted FAT/SAT test sequences for 61850 cut commissioning time.

What has actually delivered ROI for you in substations or industrial switchrooms? Has anyone integrated mobile robots cleanly into maintenance and protection workflows?