Evaluation of insulator aging status based on multispectral imaging optimized by hyperspectral analysis

•A combined technology of multispectral and hyperspectral imaging could evaluate the aging status of insulating materials.•The best combination of 3 narrow characteristic bands for evaluating the acid aging degree of insulators is 700 nm, 720 nm and 950 nm, with an accuracy of 83.1 m % in a lab experiment.•An aging evaluation algorithm based on multispectral image analysis could realize quantitative assessment of aging degree of insulators.