Every day, aerial drone technology gets better. With investment from industry, startups and big companies putting money into the field, more and more uses for drones are being discovered. And using an aerial drone has a lot of perks. For example, drone technology is now used to fix plants and machines faster, cheaper and safer.
It is much easier to get visual or other kinds of info from the air. The biggest benefits of drone technology are that it saves money and makes inspectors’ jobs safer. They are easy to control, can get to high places, and can carry a variety of sensors.
Drones can do different things with different kinds of sensors, including:
- Visual Inspections
- Thermal Inspections
- Infrastructure Maintenance
- Remote Inspections in Hazardous Environments
- Repair Assistance
Inspections can be done more quickly, safely, and accurately when aerial drones are used.
Streamlining Inspections: The Power of Remote Drone Technology
Drones in the air enabled engineers to access hard-to-reach places. At that point they became very common in engineering.
With traditional methods of inspection, a worker has to climb buildings to make repairs or check on factories. It’s risky and labour-intensive. Aerial drones with high-resolution cameras and sensors, on the other hand, can quickly get the images needed.
Aerial drone technology makes it easy for repair workers to quickly see how buildings, bridges, power lines, or high workplace equipment are fairing. Let’s consider some of the industries where drones are used to check equipment and infrastructure.
Energy and Utilities
Remotely operated drones with thermal cameras and sensors are used to check out power lines, wind turbines, or solar farms.
They can find hot spots and broken parts with their temperature monitors. Some high-tech drones, like the ones that repair wind turbines, also have robotic arms that can fix things.
Construction and Infrastructure
Aerial drones can check buildings, roads, and work sites from the air. Some of these drones have LiDAR cameras that can make 3D models of the spot that are very accurate. They also help keep an eye on how things are going on the field.
One good example of how these kinds of drones are used is in mining. Drones make mine research easier because they can make clear, accurate maps of the terrain and help plan exactly where to dig.
They can also look for possibly dangerous site features from the air in the minefield. Some types of drones can also be used to map buried mines or measure the size of stockpiles based on the information they gather.
Oil and Gas
In the oil business, drones are used to check on and fix pipes, tanks, and offshore sites. They can check the structure’s stability, find leaks, and measure rust.
Telecommunications
Companies in the telecommunications field use high buildings and structures to deliver their services. Using drones can help figure out how well cell towers, antennas, and communication lines are working.
The Rise of Robotic Equipment and Drones in Repair Operations
Drones are used to check and figure out what’s wrong, and now they are also used directly to fix things. Drones that have been upgraded can carry special tools and equipment. With these special tools, they can fix certain things.
In the wind energy field, this kind of repair is used in a good way. With the movement towards renewables, the amount of energy made by the wind keeps going up. At the moment, wind machines have to be turned off for several days so they can be fixed. Every day saved in repairs means less money spent.
A robotic drone designed by Aerones helps wind turbine technicians to perform a large scope of services quickly and efficiently. The robotic platform can conduct inspection, cleaning, maintenance and most importantly repair tasks. The robotic drone can prepare the blade surfaces for repair with cleaning and sanding tools. It then can fill the eroded surfaces with filling solutions. After the filling operation it can sand the surface and ensure good airflow.
Some drones equipped with robotic equipment can conduct repair tasks on the surface of ships such as removing the rust and applying protective coats. Their usefulness seems endless.
Enhancing Safety and Precision: The Advantages of Remotely Operated Drones in Maintenance Work
Remotely operated drones are very flexible and can be sent into action quickly. Once they are there, they can start working right away. This cuts down on the time needed for standard maintenance ways by a lot.
Drones can also record high-resolution video or sensor data in real-time. This means that, in some cases, choices about judgment can be made while the drone is being inspected.
Because drones are fast, steps can be taken quicker. This means that assets should be down as little as possible. This is especially important in the energy, industrial, and transportation businesses. In these fields, long periods of downtime can cause big drops in income.
Maintenance and repairs are not all done by drones. When used by skilled techs, these tools are great for cutting down the time it takes to check and fix things.
Preventive Maintenance
Preventive maintenance is the act of performing regularly scheduled maintenance activities to help prevent unexpected failures in the future. It is simply fixing equipment before they break.
Through machine learning, operational data analytics, and predictive asset health monitoring, engineers can optimise maintenance and reduce reliability risks to plant or business operations. You can learn more about AI and machine learning for engineers in our previous blog.
Drones are great tools to collect data quickly. This means with routine drone inspections preventive maintenance can be applied. By identifying needs before they escalate into significant problems companies can address them properly.
How Drones are Reducing Repair Expenses
Drones save money on fixes because they can check for problems early and find them before they cause damage. They use cameras and devices to get information and figure out what it means. This feature makes fixes more efficient and helps you schedule them in the best way.
Aerial drones can also use thermal imaging to find secret problems, so people don’t have to go into dangerous places. Overall, they shorten the time it takes to respond, cut down on downtime, and make things run more smoothly. All of these things lower costs for many industries by a lot.
It is easy to see how aerial drone inspections are a valuable investment, delivering multiple benefits to companies across different industries.