Now is an exciting time to be in the energy industry. Major technological advancements in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), or drones, are changing how asset inspections are conducted; and drone solutions are replacing difficult and hazardous manual inspections for electrical transmission and distribution lines, significantly reducing time and cost.
The question that naturally follows from this statement is have business processes improved to match these advances? With the advent of new data capture technology, large amounts of data are now being generated.
The real challenge is in processing and converting this data into actionable insights. This is where artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are set to transform the energy industry, by digitising its asset inspection and asset management.
AI-driven drone solutions for better efficiency
According to Tony Gilbert, CEO of Aerodyne Australia, their global energy clients have seen tremendous improvements in data capture, processing and analytics. Aerodyne’s proprietary application, vertikalitiGRID, uses AI and machine learning to automatically detect and analyse any issues. Processing time for each item is drastically reduced – from minutes to just seconds.
“We are very confident in our AI capability. We’ve built it quite rigorously over the past two years since we started this journey.
“Tens of thousands of poles have gone through the model and the results have been surprisingly accurate – in fact we have not yet missed a single defect with vertikalitiGRID.”
vertikalitiGRID is an end-to-end cloud-based asset management solution that provides a holistic understanding of asset health and performance. It is GIS-based and provides customers with an in-depth view of the condition of each asset, with clear annotated marking of defects, allowing quick planning and mobilisation of maintenance teams for troubleshooting and repairs.
20 per cent cost savings, 500 per cent time savings
Aerodyne has inspected more than 250,000 assets and over 32,150km of powerlines globally around Asia, South America and Europe. Despite the large volume of data, Aerodyne has changed the game for its clients, allowing them to enjoy a 20 per cent cost saving and 500 per cent increase in efficiency. This enables them to inspect a larger volume of assets for their clients.
“We remove the hassle of processing terabytes of data from our clients so they can focus on the important stuff,” Mr Gilbert said. “The ability of vertikalitiGRID to integrate with existing enterprise resource planning software is also appreciated by our clients, who don’t want to have to deal with multiple asset management systems.”
For one major energy company in Asia, Aerodyne has successfully reduced the 30 day inspection cycle for 1000 poles down to just seven days. This time-frame includes Aerodyne using its in-house expertise for data analysis, QA/QC and inspection planning, so the client now can focus on asset maintenance and verification.
“We have been gearing up to deliver our solutions to the Australian market,” Mr Gilbert said. “As a global player, we understand the challenges and we have what it takes to manage the intricacies of aerial inspection operations for asset-heavy customers.
“Our ability to scale our operations to meet demand, both in Drones-As-A-Service operations and in Software-As-A-Service data processing is now mature. We are very excited to offer our capabilities and we look forward to opportunities to work with energy companies here.”
About Aerodyne Group
Aerodyne Group is a world-leading AI driven, drone-based enterprise solution provider with presence and operations in 25 countries and the support of over 270 experienced pilots. Aerodyne’s AI-driven enterprise solutions vertikaliti, myPRISM and others are already deployed for major projects in the power, renewables, oil and gas, telecommunications, construction, agriculture and infrastructure industries and beyond. Aerodyne Australia is a subsidiary of Aerodyne Group.
To find out more, head to https://www.aerodyne.com.au or call 1800 931 866.
This partner content is provided by Aerodyne Group. For more information visit https://www.aerodyne.com.au/ .
