The paper proposes a hierarchical fault detection method for the high voltage equipment using a microphone array which detects the location of fault and the thermal imaging and CCD cameras which verifies the fault and stores the image, respectively. There are partial arc discharges on the faulty insulators, which generates a specific pattern of sound. Detecting the signal using the microphone array, the location of the faulty insulator can be estimated. The 6th band-pass filter was applied to remove noise signal from wind or external influence. When the mobile robot carries the thermal and CCD cameras to the possible place of the fault insulator, the fault insulators or power transmission wires can be detected by the thermal images, which are caused by the aging or natural erosion. Finally, the CCD camera captures the image of the fault insulator for the record. The detection scheme of fault location using the microphone array and the thermal images have been proved to be effective through the real experiments. As a result of this research, it becomes possible to use a mobile robot with the integrated sensors to detect the fault insulators instead of a human being.