Opening Up the Drone, Robotics & Data Ecosystem

At last year’s Energy Drone & Robotics Summit, we held a panel on “Scaling and Defining Next Generation Industrial Robotics & Data Workflows with an Open Ecosystem.” The group discussed the importance of open source ecosystems for energy companies and the suppliers they work with.

The panel was moderated by Cynthia Huang from Auterion, and the panel members were Slade Bridges with Southern Company Services, Bobby Miller with Luminant, John McClain with PEMEX Deer Park, and Stan McHann with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA).

The group discussed the benefits of open, shared ecosystems for everything from drone automation and data collection to data analysis and digital twins. 

Stan McHann summed it up well when he said, “The last thing any utility company wants is something proprietary in the middle of their IT or data stack. One, it's expensive, and two, it's hard to add more capability around it.”

When data is coming in from multiple drones, sensors, imaging technologies, and platforms, it’s important to be able to collate that data into a useful decision-making intelligence. 

Cynthia Huang said, “Our industry needs to look at building their solutions around sustainable pieces, around open source, around things that can continue to fuel collaboration and innovation across the industry. It's great to have a standalone product and a standalone workflow, but that leaves you vulnerable to the decisions and the future roadmap and support of one single manufacturer or one single process.”

The expert panelists agreed that open infrastructure allowed for the most flexibility for building fleets, collecting data points, and analyzing the data. It reduces reliance on individual—often new—external technology providers and proprietary systems that may be siloed off from the rest of the system. 

Bottom line, the collaboration efforts have to happen at organizations, at vendors serving the industry, and in the form of industry-wide standards and best practices. 

There’s more where this came from. Learn about this from energy asset owners and their other energy robotics best practices at the 2023 Energy Drone & Robotics Summit, June 12-14, in Houston, Texas. Subscribe for updates as they’re announced. 

See the entire session with Southern Company, Luminant and the NRECA- National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, right now.