Executive Q&A: An Interview With Mims Talton of Flogistix | Part 2

We’re back with Mims Talton, President and CEO of Flogistix, for part 2 of our Q&A interview. 

Read part 1 of the interview recap here. 

Let’s jump right back in. 

Sean Guerre, Executive Director of Energy Drone & Robotics Coalition: How did Flogistix get into using drones for detection and abatement for your clients?

Mims Talton: We got into it because it was interesting and it was fascinating. It fit in with the things that we were interested in naturally—data and sensors, images, technical widgets, and big data.

David Martinez and I started playing around with drones, and we learned about beyond visual line of sight issues, what it would take to work in that area. We got involved. We got a lot of good people that we met at your drone shows [Energy Drone & Robotics Summit]. We've met people that we've partnered with for various aspects of what we're doing because you can't really do it all yourself; it's too interrelated to all the different technologies. We go from using AI to just standard stuff like how do we get the data out of the field? 

Believe it or not, that’s one of our big challenges—managing all the data for anything that we do with drones. They’re really good at creating a big pile of data. 

SG: We’ve heard companies were expecting a data wave, but they got a data tsunami. The workflow, DataOps, handling the data—that’s become its own subset in drone programs.

MT: Yea, handling all this data and being able to take the data and create actionable reports out of it is really what we’re doing with our air methane portal—trying to create actionable reports. And, of course, regulatory reports—things they can put in their file and file with the regulatory state and federal agencies. 

But yeah, it's just a wall of data.

SG: Can you talk with us a little bit about the tools you’re using?

MT: What we're doing right now is we're using quadcopters for facility inspection. And we have had fantastic success with it. It's a very dependable device. It's very advanced, it has a lot of features like daisy chaining the drone pilot, and all those things are really useful. 

Frankly, we've been using them long enough for some of the things that we're using today were inputs that we gave them [DJI] several years ago. We have worked closely with them with some of the sensors. 

The other part of the industry that we're trying to solve for is linear inspection—pipelines. And that's where I see another big area for us; being able to do long-range pipeline inspection. We've been able to do 300- and 400-mile pipeline jobs. We can actually do those with quadcopters. It takes a few days, but we can do a very thorough inspection using quadcopters. It just is not the most efficient manpower for longer stretches of pipe. 

So what we're looking to do with a fixed-wing solution is linear inspection. And when you go to the fixed wing, of course, you have the opportunity for much longer flight times and covering a lot more territory. The way we're set up right now, we could go out 28 miles each direction.  Literally you could go to a pipe, you could set up, fly 28 miles twice in one direction, bring it back, go back to the other direction 28 miles, get two passes, and then remobilize from there.

SG: I would imagine economics on something like that are quite a bit less than having to do it with a manned aircraft helicopter or fixed wing airplane—it’s really a missing link there.

MT: Yea, and the economics go hand in hand with accuracy. If you’re a pipeline operator, helicopter, satellite, and airplane solutions aren’t giving you the total picture. The solutions aren’t there—it’s not practical day-to-day application to find and fix links. They can do the big-picture super-emitter stuff, but just don’t have the resolution for day-to-day detection.

That’s where I think drones come in because we can fly so much lower and the sensor technology is out of this world nowadays. So we think that we want to work with everybody in the sensor world because it's so big and dynamic, we don't want to miss anything. 

SG: Sounds like we have layers—both in data levels and cost—and UAVs seem to be in the sweet spot of great data and being economical. 

MT: If we can prove this out, we've got a tremendous opportunity to help the operators of these pipelines. That’s the next area that's coming to the table and saying, ‘What do we need to do to participate in the energy transition to help clean up our commodities that we transport?’ And the pipelines have been great to work with—they're all very aggressive and have very focused groups about methane and leaks. 

There's free satellite data that they can take advantage of today. And they ought to be doing all the above because the pipelines have a challenge—moving into this new world where they have to report all this, and it's taken seriously. I think people have figured out that methane regulation is something that they want to do—and once you start down that path, I don't think you can turn it off.

SG: It certainly seems like a global effort that is unlikely to reverse, so it's great that Flogistix has been out there as leaders right from the beginning, helping people through that learning curve.

MT: We love the drone space—the technology and the entrepreneurial spirit that is in the drone market. And then with all the people that y'all bring together for the trade show, it's very much an entrepreneurial, pioneering, what's-over-the-horizon industry right now. And that's really exciting. 

We're just happy to have a little space that we think we can be involved in the drone industry with our Commaris Seeker product. And from projects such as long-range pipelines to lost civilizations and in South American countries to imaging of big facilities—they're just a lot of things that we're either involved in or hope to do in the future.

SG: Exciting times, no doubt. We really appreciate you sharing so much of this today, Mims, thank you very much.

That’s it for the Q&A! If you liked it, be sure to tell us by email or on social media. 

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