With the continuous increase of overhead transmission lines

the environment of operation and maintenance is increasingly complex

and the requirements for operation and maintenance of overhead transmission lines are being stricter. We briefly present that the traditional manual inspection method has disadvantages of low inspection efficiency and ineffective protection of grid security operations due to many limitations

and point out that unmanned aerial vehicle（UAV） has been widely used in the inspection of overhead transmission lines

making up for the shortage of manual inspection and helicopter inspection methods. Moreover

combining the background of the UAV inspection application of overhead transmission line at home and abroad

we introduce the relevant standards development and testing technology research

and analyze the status quo of key technology applications such as self-inspection inspection

operation safety control

defect identification technology

inspection data application and auxiliary maintenance operation. In addition

we discuss the training for UAV inspection staff

and propose the development trend and research direction of UAV inspection technology

and put forward the next steps to improve the full-cycle closed-loop application capability of the UAV and improve the intelligent inspection level of China’s power grid.