sUAS Inspection
Bottom line: Inspections with sUAS increases utility efficiency and worker safety.
Why Inspect with SUAS
PinnaclX is a national leader in close-up inspection of transmission structures with small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS). Our experience improves reliably and reduces power interruptions for utility companies. Some utility companies provide energy to millions of customers across cities and state lines. In order to maintain this vast infrastructure, assets and transmission structures must be continually inspected, repaired and updated. Service interruptions can occur in many ways such as equipment failure, storms, wildlife, tree limbs, and public damage. Therefore, to identify locations that require servicing, an efficient, safe, and reliable inspection method must be developed for routine maintenance and/or after emergency events. However, currently, inspection of utility infrastructure requires the use of a helicopter or it requires workers to climb transmission structures to visually inspect areas for damage. Both scenarios are expensive and time consuming. Some inspections locations are remote or challenging/harmful for personnel to access. Alternatively, while hundreds of helicopter flight hours are accumulated each day inspecting utility infrastructure in the United States, collisions between helicopter and wires can result in fatalities and/or serious injuries to flight crews and aircraft. In some cases, electrical components cannot be reached by either method. As a result of these limitations, inspection of transmission structures by sUAS has become more desirable.
sUAS inspection can (1) reduce inspection time, (2) provide more data, (3) expand inspection areas, and (4) improve inspection safety as compared to visual inspection. During transmission structure inspection, sUAS can reduce inspection time by inspecting multiple locations at a single transmission structure and/or multiple transmission structure locations. A single inspection flight can provide more inspection data by collecting images, GPS locations, and mapping of infrastructure components. An sUAS inspection flight can assess locations on transmission structures that helicopters cannot and protects surveyors from contact with high-voltage equipment. PinnaclX can provides a proven, reliable sUAS inspection solution that can be used for routine maintenance and emergency operations.
Routine maintenance inspection of assets and transmission structures by sUAS can reduce inspection time, increase data collection, expand inspection areas, and improve inspection safety as compared to visual inspection. Routine maintenance inspections can be used to inspect transmission and distribution lines, substations, facilities, and right-of-ways. These inspections provide video and photographic images that can be used to conduct electrical and mechanical component maintenance and failure analysis. Inspection of these components is critical for providing consistent and reliable power. Outages due to component failure can take weeks to repair depending on location. For example, the failure of critical transmission towers located on either side of highways could result in harming drivers and equipment below. However, sUAS inspection services can be used to predict failure and therefore, repairs can be made with minimal disruption of service.
Why Choose PinnaclX?
The key innovation of the PinnaclX inspection service is the efficiency, safety, and reliability. Since 2014, PinnaclX inspection services have surveyed transmission structures, vegetation, solar power plants, substations, and storage tanks for one of the largest utilities in New England. sUAS transmission structure inspection is challenging because of the variety of transmission structure configurations and obstacles obstructing inspection flight paths. In some cases, a sUAS is the only method that is able to inspect the damage potential.
Overcoming these challenges, PinnaclX has developed safe and efficient UAS asset and transmission structure inspection service. Inspection services are able to deploy quickly, rapidly relay repair information to the client, and provide detailed information for longer-term maintenance scheduling. Through experience, PinnaclX has developed flight operation manuals and checklists to ensure the safety of the UAS operators, utility personnel, and utility assets. To inspect assets during both emergency and routine maintenance operations, inspection services must be able to deploy quickly, relay repair information to the client quickly, and provide detailed information for longer-term maintenance scheduling.
Unfortunately, sUAS inspection of transmission structures still remains challenging for three main reasons. First, assets and transmission structures have high EMF and GPS signal interference around high voltage lines, towers, substations and other utility assets. PinnaclX has developed and manufactures a light weight sUAS, Chameleon, capable of flight in high EMF and GPS interference environments . Second, obstructions surrounding the transmission structure may require modifications to optimal flight plans. Obstructions that alter a structure can range from vegetation growth or debris/damage after a weather-related event. Third, accessibility to transmission structures and travel time between structures can reduce the number of inspections that can be completed within a day. Through strategic planning, PinnaclX can minimize down time between inspection flights. Overcoming these challenges, PinnaclX has shown ability of one crew to inspect 180-600 transmission structures in a six-day period.
Why Strategic Planning?
To improve efficiency of inspection, PinnaclX also offers strategic inspection planning assistance for routine maintenance inspection of transmission structures. UAS inspection prioritization, planning, and operating procedures can increase the number of structures inspected and improve the quality of each inspection flight. For routine inspection, clients are most often interested in the priority of which transmission structures to inspect and the efficiency of the inspection. Experienced PinnaclX engineers can assist identifying high-risk transmission structures and prioritizing utility inspections. High-priority transmission structures are typically transmission structures that have with power lines that cross (1) major interstates or water ways in highly congested areas or (2) mountain tops or valleys where turbulence wind can be present. Alternatively, PinnaclX can develop a risk-assessment plan based on the specific needs of a client. Specifically, PinnaclX has assisted a New England client determined a prioritization of transmission structures based on (1) criticality of location, (2) age of structure, and (3) safety of the UAS inspection process.
PinnaclX will work with your company to efficiently inspect structures. Transportation time and time between inspections have the greatest negative impact on inspection efficiency. To optimize the number of inspection completed per day, PinnaclX can assist in the selection of daily inspections. Inspection scheduling will consider proximity of different inspection sites, ease of access to transmission structure, and traffic volume between sites. Most importantly, the inspection schedule will minimize the transportation time, which typically is the most time-consuming part involved with sUAS inspection. In addition, inspection efficiency is influenced by the configuration of the transmission structure. For example, PinnaclX is able inspect up to 100 double circuit lattice structures in a 10-hr. day. This transmission structure was relatively quick to inspect because it had lattice structures on the same lines, in consecutive order, and vehicle accessible.