Updated: Mar 22, 2023
By: William Ralston
05.07.2022 12:00 PM
The National Grid is testing computer-manned drones that can save millions in maintenance work.
PHOTOGRAPH: CHRIS RATCLIFFE/BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES
In March, a troop of engineers gathered in an unkept green field in rural Nottinghamshire, England. They were there to test a drone piloting software that they hoped could one day be in charge of maintaining the high-voltage pylons that transmit electricity across the country. Assuming the software was working, a drone was about to inspect a pylon from a few meters away, maneuvered not by a nearby pilot but a computer in a control station hundreds of meters away.
Seconds later, the dance began. Whizzing around, the drone took 65 photos that documented the condition of the pylon’s steel arms, fittings, and conductors. After only six minutes, the drone returned to the ground to a round of applause. By the time it had landed, it had already sent the photos to be analyzed for corrosion by an AI-powered system.
“What we’re doing is sending a super high-level instruction to the drone, like ‘Go to that pylon,’ and the drone is using its own intelligence to understand where the pylon is, where the parts of the pylon are that need to be imaged, and then it organizes its own route to the data capture itself,” says Sees.ai founder John McKenna, whose company was behind the drone test.
Until now, data about the condition of electricity pylons has almost exclusively been captured manually by using ropes to climb pylons, which is dangerous, or by helicopters, which is expensive and polluting. (Helicopters also deliver poor data because they can only gather it from afar.) Manually-flown drones, on the other hand, can't be rolled out on a large scale because they're extremely slow and require a pilot and an observer to follow them.
As such, the companies responsible for these pylons have had to settle for scheduled maintenance, which is not only inefficient but unsafe. Faults in the UK power transmission network are expensive, shutting down entire regions, but in drier regions they can cause wildfires. Unlock unmanned drone flight and you can, in theory, eradicate this problem.
Other countries have been working on similar efforts: Last year, the Florida Power and Light company used automated drones manufactured by Israeli company Percepto to detect problems in the power grid after hurricanes. In Norway, utility company Agder Energi Nett announced in April 2021 that it will rely exclusively on automated drones, mostly flown by KVS Technologies, to monitor its power grid. The system the company uses is tailored to speed and scalability in that it flies a minimum of 15 meters over the top of the grid for a “broad inspection,” says the company’s COO, Jimmy Bostrøm, rather than inspecting each pylon individually. A key part of the inspection is identifying vegetation that may have fallen on the grid during strong winds and storms. Three of Sweden’s core electricity distributors have also recently signed contracts with Airpelago, another company that flies automated drones, and have committed to exclusive use of automated drones for inspection over the next two years. “There are real signs that operators are steadily moving away from helicopters,” Max Hjalmarsson, the company’s cofounder and CEO, says.
Back in England, the control station powering the drone was only a walk away, but it could have been anywhere in the world, explains McKenna, and the pilot would only need internet connectivity to issue high-level instructions and override the system if anything goes wrong. Instead of humans and helicopters, McKenna’s vision is to have armies of drones inspecting and maintaining the electricity transmission grid using preprogrammed templates. This is possible because of commonality between towers. By taking photos in a consistent, perfectly repeatable process, the company’s system can digitally reconstruct each pylon, capturing data optimal for automated processing. Sees.ai sends the data it captures to a company called Keen AI, who will use it to digitally reconstruct each pylon, identifying precisely where corrosion is developing and, possibly in the future, where it’s likely to develop.
And instead of one pilot observing a single drone, each pilot could observe several, operating like air traffic control at an airport. Because the drone understands how to position itself, it can execute the mission autonomously even if communication fails.
Sees.ai designed a drone software that works in a similar way as autonomous cars. Using information gathered from six on-board sensors—two LIDAR, three fish-eye cameras, and an IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit)—it creates its own 3D world that it then presents on a computer screen, along with a live videostream from the cameras. Instead of relying on potentially inaccurate or outdated historical data from asset design files, Google Maps, or satellite imagery, the software captures its own from scratch, and will evolve in real time throughout the drone’s mission.
McKenna says this test flight in Nottinghamshire was a step towards developing a command and control system that’s going to allow for autonomous aerial vehicles to be approved on a large scale. The trials so far include the remote inspection of Sellafield’s nuclear site, the rail infrastructure governed by Network Rail, and Vodafone’s telecommunications network. Alongside the Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service, Sees.ai has been exploring whether the system could be used to transport medical supplies, and eventually persons, to and from incidents.
This technology is pushing the limits of what drones can do in British airspace. While the uses of drones are multifarious, especially when it comes to transportation and delivery, the rules that govern their operation have made it difficult to roll them out at scale. In the US, for example, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) prohibits companies from flying drones beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS). Though it has approved 230 waivers, most of them have been for academic or research purposes. The waivers that have been granted for commercial purposes have been limited on time, airspace, and often both. (In March, a report issued by the FAA recommended an overhaul of these existing regulations to enable the commercial drone industry to scale.)
“It’s like this in almost all countries,” says David Wickström, CTO of Skyqraft, a Swedish company that uses AI to analyze data acquired by drones. Some drone operators, including Zipline, a US startup, have resorted to developing its systems in Africa.
In the UK, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) also requires the pilot to be within the visual line of sight (VLOS) of the drone. But in 2021, the CAA granted Sees.ai explicit authority to begin operating BVLOS flights in nonsegregated airspace, up to a height of 150 feet. There are only 10 or so companies in the world that have permission at this level, McKenna says. The list also includes American Robotics, the Massachusetts-based company that in January became the first company authorized by the FAA to operate automated drones without anyone on-site to monitor them. Its system relies on an acoustic Detect-and-Avoid (DAA) technology that ensures that its drones maintain a safe distance from other aircraft.
The UK’s leading drone operators have called on the Government to change the way uncrewed aviation is regulated, and break down the barriers to uncrewed flight that risk the UK missing out on the ‘drone opportunity’.
The comments come in a new White Paper published by the BVLOS Operations Forum, a consortium of advanced drone and technology companies that are pioneering the use of remotely piloted aircraft ‘beyond visual line of sight’ (BVLOS).
‘South of the Clouds: A roadmap to the next generation of uncrewed aviation’, sets out the industry’s vision of how new types of aircraft, like drones, can be integrated into the UK’s busy skies, and what steps the Government needs to take to make it happen.
Organisations in the Forum are already using drones to deliver cancer treatments and vital medical supplies to patients in remote areas; in search & rescue operations by HM Coastguard; and for conducting infrastructure inspections and monitoring in a more sustainable, safer way. But because government regulations have evolved more slowly than the technologies in this sector, these types of remotely piloted flights are limited to very restricted areas of airspace, making regular commercial services difficult to deliver. ‘South of the Clouds’ presents a collective industry view of how policymakers could address that problem.
“This White Paper has been co-created by the Forum to outline the imperative of uncrewed flight”, said Russell Porter, Chair of the BVLOS Operations Forum and Head of UTM Stakeholder Engagement at air traffic services company NATS.
“The way forward to achieving routine beyond-visual-line-of-sight operations, integrated with other air traffic, will require significant policy change from both the Government and the Civil Aviation Authority.
“While there have been positive developments, not least i n the Future Flight Challenge and the recently published Airspace Modernisation Strategy, this fast-growing sector is adamant we need to go further, faster, if we are to make uncrewed aircraft a safe and effective option in the aeronautical toolbox.”
Among the policy recommendations is a call for all aircraft to be equipped with ‘electronic conspicuity’ technology to show their location – without this, drones would effectively be flying blind to what’s around them – as well as reform of the regulatory system to enable remotely piloted flights in more areas of airspace, rather than restricted or temporary environments.
Also proposed is a roadmap that sets out a vision for how airspace could be managed for uncrewed aircraft in the future, and the steps required to get there, so that those in the industry can plan and invest accordingly.
“With reduced emissions, reduced cost, and improved safety, uncrewed aircraft can achieve extraordinary things that everyone, in all parts of the UK, will benefit from, and BVLOS is key to unlocking that full potential” said Russell Porter.
“The next generation of aviation is coming, and now is the time to act to make it a reality.”
To read ‘South of the Clouds: A roadmap to the next generation of uncrewed aviation’, visit: https://www.nats.aero/sotc
About the BVLOS Operations Forum
The BVLOS Operations Forum is made up of 15 organisations (listed below), all of whom are involved in developing or operating beyond-visual-line-of-sight drone operations.
Apian ARPAS-UK Blue Bear BristowCallen Lenz FlylogixMaritime & Coastguard AgencyMinistry of DefenceNATS National Police Air ServiceNational Police Chief’s Council Network Rail Sees.ai SkyportsWindracers
The Forum was established by air traffic control leader, NATS, to bring drone operators together to learn from each other’s operations, collectively advance safety in uncrewed flight, and support policy makers in developing the policies and regulations that the industry needs to grow.
About NATS
NATS is the UK’s principal air navigation services provider and is split into two main businesses, which provide two distinct services:
NATS (En Route) plc (NERL) — the regulated business, which provides air traffic management services to aircraft within UK airspace and over the eastern part of the North Atlantic; and
NATS (Services) Ltd (NSL) — the unregulated business, which provides air traffic control services at many of the UK’s major airports (13 civil and 7 military airfields) and other airports overseas.
NATS is alive to the opportunities that new airspace users present for airspace in the future and has worked closely with early innovators. Safety is always our number one priority, and we are working with increasing intensity to support the growth of this exciting new industry by safely integrating new users into a sustainable, modernised and fully integrated airspace.
For more information visit the NATS website at www.nats.aero
BY ZACC DUKOWITZ
15 February 2023
When it comes to using drones for commercial applications, battery life is one of the biggest limiting factors.
Extending battery life has proved a tough challenge, and one that the drone industry has been laboring away at for years.
All this work has produced steady progress, with battery life steadily increasing. But the gains in flight time for drones that fly using your standard LiPo batteries have been relatively small despite all the work put into extending them.
Some less common approaches to powering drones have been tested, and seem promising. One is using hydrogen fuel cells, and tests have also been made with powering drones using gasoline (though these don’t seem to have gone anywhere).
Of course, you can also use a tether to send power up to the drone, allowing it to stay aloft as long as you want—but this means the drone has to remain stationary, since it’s leashed to the ground by the tether.
But there may be a way to power drones from a removed power source without having to tether them to ground.
That’s right—we’re talking about powering drones with lasers.
Credit: Northwestern Polytechnical University
NEW BREAKTHROUGHS FOR LASER-POWERED DRONES
The idea of using lasers as a power source for drones has been around for at least a decade.
But new research conducted by scientists at the Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) in China has been making the news lately, showing progress in work toward making this technology viable.
The team of researchers at NPU have equipped a drone with a module that converts light energy into electricity, allowing it to capture power from a high-energy laser beam so it can stay in flight indefinitely.
The researchers have dubbed these UAVs optics-driven drones (ODDs).
Credit: Northwestern Polytechnical University
Of course, for this laser-powering method to work the laser needs to be able to automatically track the drone.
For this reason, the researchers have made the laser adaptive and given it the ability to track its target—the photoelectric conversion module on the bottom of the drone—using an “intelligent visual tracking algorithm.”
According to NPU researchers, the algorithm has proven effective in a variety of environments, as well as differing light and weather conditions.
The lasers used to power the drone also have an adaptive technology that allows them to shape their beams autonomously, adjusting intensity as needed based on the distance the drone is from the power source and in instances where an object is detected between the laser beam and the drone.
The laser-power drone technology was recently tested on a small quadcopter. Tests were conducted outside at night and inside with both the lights on and off.
In the tests, the drone reaches a height of just about 33 feet in the air (see below for images from the tests).
Credit: Northwestern Polytechnical University
So far the NPU system has proven to be pretty inefficient, losing about 50% of the energy transmitted from the laser.
But it works.
And that may be all that matters right now, given that electricity is fairly inexpensive and that the approach allows the drone to can stay in the air indefinitely.
OTHER LASER-CHARGING DRONE PROJECTS
Here’s a quick rundown of other noteworthy efforts to charge drones with lasers.
PowerLight
In 2012, U.S.-based PowerLight (formerly known as LaserMotive), demonstrated its wireless drone charging system by keeping a large drone in the air for 48 hours in a wind tunnel.
The system was also used to power a Lockheed Martin Stalker drone outdoors at a range of 1,970 feet in the air.
Today PowerLight says it’s working on long-range, lightweight wireless laser power transmission system. Watch the video below to learn more.
DARPA’s Drone Laser Project
In 2018, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) announced a program called the Stand-off Ubiquitous Power/Energy Replenishment—Power Beaming Demo (SUPER PBD).
The goal of the program was to test technology that would charge aircraft while in flight using laser beams.
In DARPA’s approach, the aircraft has solar panels in its wings and batteries in its fuselage. At first the batteries provide power to the aircraft, but as they run down a laser beam is pointed at the craft’s solar panels, allowing it recharge and stay in flight.
DARPA selected a UAS called Silent Falcon made by a company of the same name for its laser tests.
Credit: Silent Falcon
LakeDiamond
In 2018, a startup called LakeDiamond made news for its idea to use lab-grown diamonds to recharge drones while in flight.
The diamonds allow laser beams to maintain strength over a long distance, letting them recharge photovoltaic cells on the surface of the drone. In LakeDiamond’s laser, the light produced by a diode is directed at a booster composed of reflective material, an optical component, and a small metal plate to absorb the heat.
Credit: LakeDiamond
THE BENEFITS OF CHARGING DRONES WITH LASERS
So why would you want to charge drones with lasers?
The obvious benefit is that you would no longer have to worry about battery life. Using lasers, you could hypothetically have a drone that could fly for as long as you wanted.
But there are specific use cases that would benefit from having a drone that can fly for a very long time—maybe even forever.
Here they are:
Disaster relief. During time-consuming emergency missions, like searching for victims after a flash flood or earthquake, the ability to have a drone remain in the air for long periods of time could be extremely helpful.
Traffic control. Traffic never stops, and continuously flying drones could be used to monitor traffic and help improve safety on the roads.
Security patrols. Security concerns are in place every hour of the day, a fact that supports the idea of having a constant “eye in the sky” to monitor the security of a building or perimeter.
Flying satellites. Laser-powered drones could be used for higher altitude drone operations, in which drones basically act like small low-altitude satellites.
The last one sounds a little unlikely, but it does reveal the places our imagination can take us when a drone is no longer limited by how long it can stay in the air.
Who knows—maybe we’ll see laser-powered drones rolled out within our lifetime. Results from the research being conducted today certainly makes it seem like a strong possibility.