ICYMI: March 2023 Energy Drone & Robotics Top Story Roundup

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It’s hard to believe that March is almost over, but my calendar tells me it’s time to look back at our top stories for this year so far! 

1. Automated Visual Inspections

Percepto released its report on industry adoption of automated visual inspections. To our surprise, adoption rates are still fairly low, with only 14% of companies using drones for visual inspections.

The low adoption rate isn’t because of lack of desire, however, because 95% of survey respondents want to be using them. 

A similar trend was discovered around artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). Only 12% of respondents reported they are using AI or machine learning (ML) to analyze visual inspection data, with the vast majority wanting to implement this technology as well. 

Barriers to implementation were budget and lack of executive buy-in, leaving visual inspections a manual process for many energy asset owners. 

2. Autonomous Drones & Robots

Drones and robots are revolutionizing the way industrial and energy enterprises conduct inspections.

At Vattenfall’s combined heat and power plant in Berlin-Marzahn, the ANYmal 4-legged robot is trained to conduct autonomous inspections. ANYmal navigates the facility with a built-in navigation system to find pumps, gauges, values, and other equipment to check. Developers call this system the robot’s digital “brain.”

These brains can be installed in ground robots like ANYmal as well as in aerial drones for overhead inspections of power lines, solar panels, wind turbines, silos, and other assets.

3. Drone Inspections for Utilities

Yes, another story about drone inspections! Y’all are interested in this topic, and so are we. 

Constellation shared 3 top tips for using drones to inspect utility power lines—along with AI and ML to analyze the data—is a faster and safer alternative to traditional inspection methods.

Utilities using drone inspection and data analysis programs are inspecting assets more often, better identifying maintenance needs, keeping human workers safer, and more. 

Do you have an energy drone and robotics topic you want us to cover in Q2? Let us know!