Inside Unmanned Systems

FEB-MAR 2016

Inside Unmanned Systems provides actionable business intelligence to decision-makers and influencers operating within the global UAS community. Features include analysis of key technologies, policy/regulatory developments and new product design.

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26 unmanned systems inside   January/February 2016 AIR UTILITIES " We're not giving them thousands of raw photos. We're giving them asset management information." –Phil Buchan, commercial director, Cyberhawk Delair-Tech's DT18 performs utilities inspection In 2012, France-based Delair-Tech became the frst UAS manufacturer certifed for beyond visual line-of-sight operations. Since then the company's DT18 has helped inspect and monitor various infrastructures—including utilities. EDF, or Electricity of France, worked with Delair-Tech to monitor vegetation encroachment on powerlines, which can cause outages or fres. EDF spends most of its maintenance budget pruning vegetation that's too close to electric cables, according to a case study, and assesses vegetation on foot or by helicopter. They wanted to see how UAS could more effectively and economically identify problem areas. The DT18 completed four fights and captured 40,000 images. The results helped EDF plan their vegetative maintenance program by introducing automation. from an unmanned aircraft managers will be better informed as they set priorities during wide-area emergencies. "Today, we have evaluator teams go to the site and ride the lines. If the lines disappear off the road or if the right of way cuts through trees and they can't see it, they have to get out of the truck and walk the line to look for damage," Lewis said. "That's slow and it exposes crew mem- bers to the terrain and any animals that may be there. UAS can revolutionize that process by making it a lot quicker to identify the dam- age, which in turn will help us dispatch crews quicker and get the power on quicker." While it might take a while for this technol- ogy to become an integral part of utility in- spection and repair, Byatt expects there will be "massive and rapid change" in the industry at some point, with tens of thousands of UAS used for these types of applications. You'll see them in bucket trucks and workers will routinely use them for both short and long range inspections. UAS will never completely replace helicopters or trucks, but they'll offer crews another option. Someday UAS might even be able to bring crew members tools to help them work faster, fly be- tween substations to identity where repairs are needed or f ly between small gaps from struc- ture to structure and put down conduit along the way. "We're very excited about what UAS can do, but want to make sure we implement this tech- nology in a responsible, safe way that doesn't impact the reliability of the system," Phillips said. "We don't want to rush too quickly and make mistakes. But EPRI and our members see an enormous potential, mainly, of course, because safety is so important to us." Photos courtesy of Cyberhawk (Top) and Delair-Tech (Bottom)

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