Drone Inspections

Red Cat Holdings subsidiary Skypersonic says it has successfully completed the world’s first transcontinental drone inspection relying only on an internet connection from a normal mobile phone. A fully operational utility plant in Turin was inspected using an indoor drone controlled from Orlando, some 4,800 miles away.

Researchers in Denmark have developed tech that may well prove revolutionary in power grid surveys – and for UAV flight capacity generally: a drone that can tap into the same power lines it is inspecting to recharge its batteries, then continue on with its mission.

Though the Paris Métro may be over 120 years old, the famous underground subway system strives to stay young through modernization, and is now preparing to roll out new tech innovations that include robots and drones.

UK’s National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) is launching trials to fully automate the corrosion inspection of electricity transmission pylons with the help of autonomous drones.

French energy giant TotalEnergies is launching a drone-based methane emissions detection program across all its upstream oil and gas operated sites. The global campaign will use a greenhouse gas measuring technology called Airborne Ultralight Spectrometer for Environmental Applications (AUSEA) that TotalEnergies has developed in collaboration with the French National Research Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the University of Reims Champagne Ardenne.

SkySpecs, a Michigan-based company whose drone software is used to monitor about 45% of all wind turbine blades in North America, has scooped up a cool $80 million in strategic funding to grow its product portfolio as well as geographic footprint. The funding round was led by Goldman Sachs with participation from NextEra Energy Resources and existing investors.

Virginia Natural Gas (VNG) has decided to use drones as another means to perform equipment inspections on its pipeline infrastructure. The utility company says it will use DJI Mavic 2 Pro drones for inspections of critical infrastructure, right-of-way assessments, and monitoring more than 5,500 miles of gas pipeline in Virginia.

Florida Power & Light (FPL), which serves more than 11 million people in Florida, is deploying autonomous drones across the state to monitor substations and power distribution grids. The electric utility has tied up with drone-in-a-box solutions provider Percepto for what is being hailed as “the largest commercial autonomous drone project in the world.”

Israel-based autonomous drone software company vHive has scooped up $25 million in Series B funding to digitize enterprise assets and expand operations globally. vHive’s drone-agnostic solution enables readily-available commercial, off-the-shelf drones to follow flight paths autonomously and inspect field assets, such as cell towers, with uncanny precision to build accurate digital twins.

Industrial drone solutions provider American Robotics has reached an agreement to acquire Ardenna, a Virginia-based firm providing AI-powered analytics software for the rail industry. The acquisition would enable American Robotics to offer autonomous drone-in-a-box solutions to railways.

Indoor drone inspection solution provider Flybotix has announced a new version of its post-flight analysis software, ASIO Explore. The new and improved ASIO Explore 2.0 introduces a bunch of long-awaited features such as 3D map generation, POI localization, video and 3D map synchronization, real temperature monitoring, and customizable report generation.

In a US-first, two programs running under the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) are coming together to improve road safety with tethered drones.

Lithuania is looking to drones to improve the quality of its road infrastructure. AB Kelių priežiūra, a state-owned company that ensures the maintenance of almost 13,050 miles (21,000 km) of national roads, is teaming up with drone manufacturer Thrust and tech company Agmis to automate road inspections with flying machines and artificial intelligence.

Switzerland-based Sulzer Schmid has launched a new plug-and-play solution that enables most off-the-shelf DJI drones to perform semi-autonomous wind turbine blade inspections.

Singapore-based drone solutions company Avetics Global says it’s set to make confined-space inspection more accessible with an affordable new product, Lumicopter. Combining the DJI FPV drone with a custom-made protective shell and LED light, Lumicopter has been designed to fly in enclosed or hazardous facilities such as storage tanks, building interiors, powerplants, ships, etc.

Singapore-based drone technology player H3 Dynamics is joining forces with Sitemark – a specialist AI-analytics company from Belgium – to launch a new robots-as-a-service solution for autonomous solar farm monitoring and inspection.

Drone mission planning platform Drone Harmony is having a very exciting 2022 thus far. Last month, the Switzerland-based company announced it had raised $1.6 million for product innovation. And today, we are hearing about an exciting new partnership with FlyNex, a German software integration platform, resulting in a one-stop drone data solution for energy and construction companies.

Percepto, whose autonomous inspection platform AIM was named one of 100 Best Inventions of 2021 by Time magazine, has received the green light from the FAA for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone operations at Delek US Holdings’ refineries in Texas and Arkansas.

US oil major Chevron has been benefiting from drone technology for many years. Among other things, the company is known to deploy drones for leak detection, internal equipment and asset inspection, earthworks mapping, project progress monitoring, and environmental applications. And now, the energy giant is looking to add more autonomous tools to its arsenal by placing a purchase order with American Robotics.

Santa Monica-based aerial imaging and data processing specialist DroneBase is strengthening its services to solar energy clients with piloted airplane surveys to provide annual audits of infrastructure supplementing the company’s routine drone inspections.

South Korea’s flag carrier Korean Air has succeeded in deploying multiple drones simultaneously to shorten aircraft inspection time and improve operational stability dramatically. The unprecedented feat was at display at the airline’s headquarters today.