INSPECTION OF POWER LINES IN GERMANY
Power line inspections are a crucial part of everyday maintenance procedures to ensure continuous electricity supply, whether it be to a remote location or a large city. Timely identification of wire sagging, pole damage, or threatening vegetation that might cause future damage is key to reducing resource input, keeping costs down, and restoring electricity quickly.
FIXAR in collaboration with DronoDat carried out an autonomous aerial inspection of power lines to identify threatening vegetation for electricity poles and wires. Expected results – cloud points for further processing.
DronoDat is a company that has extensive experience in data collection through state-of-the-art drones and data analysis using the power of machine learning.
Solution
FIXAR 007 aircraft equipped with RESEPI VLP16 lidar sensor as well as onboard GNSS equipment for data accuracy.
Work progress
A total distance of 12.5 km of the linear path was covered in the mission location in East Germany. An average flight speed of 62 km/h (38.5 mph) during the mission, allowed FIXAR to cover the whole distance in just 12.5 minutes. According to mission objectives, a point cloud was obtained and provided to the customer for further postprocessing.
Main takeaways
With a previous experience of using a DJI Matrice 300, the customer was impressed by the speed of takeoff, as well as the time it took for the execution of the mission.
Using a DJI drone, it was necessary to divide the mission into two parts of 20 and 25 minutes. Additional 20 minutes were needed to change batteries and calibrate the LiDAR, as the calibration for the sensor is required after each battery change. Also, the connection with the telemetry of DJI was unstable, and the customer was required to follow the drone by car, otherwise, the drone would lose the connection, thus not being able to continue the mission.
This makes FIXAR 007 UAV solution not only more reliable and easy to use but also 5 times more efficient solution compared to DJI Matrice 300 in terms of time spent on the field for same distance inspection tasks.
FLIGHT MISSION OVERVIEW
| Flight duration | 12.5 min |
| Flight distance, km (linear survey) | 12.5 km (7.77 mi) |
| Mission altitude | 35-50 m (114.8 - 164.0 ft) |
| Mission average flight speed | 62 km/h (38.52 mph) |
| Max. mission distance from operator, km | 2.4 km (1.49 mi) |
| Weather conditions | Cloudy, low wind, 10 C (50 F) |
| Payload in use | RESEPI VLP16 lidar Onboard GNSS equipment |