Flying drones to their full potential

Technological advances have led to drones being used innovatively in many fields including utilities. Utility Week finds out what drones can do and what the potential is for the future.

“If you can imagine it, a drone can do it,” says one commercial drone firm on their myriad uses. For those with an active imagination, the sky is the limit, although the current rules state it’s actually within 500 metres of the operator and always within their line of sight.

These remotely controlled camera-equipped miniature aircraft have rapidly transformed from a nifty toy to a professional tool, bringing faster, cheaper and safer asset inspections. Utilities say the technology will really take off once the regulations laid down by the Civil Aviation Authority are relaxed to allow drones to be operated beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS).

Socially distanced drones

In recent months Essex and Suffolk Water, part of the Northumbrian Water Group, has been ramping up drone use as part of its adaptation to the challenges of coronavirus and social distancing rules that would make manual asset inspections an impossibility.

“The drones that are available on the commercial market are fantastic and offer lots of potential for the water industry,” enthuses Greg Barrett, project engineer. “The drones we use offer so much versatility and provide lots of advantages over traditional surveying techniques. This particular example of working within confined spaces helps overcome the challenge of social distancing and putting our people at risk – but also gives us a more in-depth insight of the condition of our assets.”

The company currently utilises three types of aircraft, including one used by the conservation team to observe flora and fauna and monitor riverbank erosion and environmental changes that affect how and where water is abstracted. Maintenance drones survey buildings as well as conducting conditional assessments of dams, reservoirs and water towers.

The most recent addition, according to Barrett, is changing how reservoir inspections are done. He says the ‘Elios 2’ enhanced safety inspections, while overcoming social distance challenges in confined spaces: “This drone has enabled us to access restricted areas without putting our people at risk of not being able to follow the government guidance on social distancing.”

The technology is advancing at pace, Barrett explains. The features of newer models include a fixed cage, movable camera, strobe lighting and even a thermal camera that give a better picture of asset health than ever before.

“We are currently exploring if we can use the images and data captured by our drones, such as topographical data, to form part of our digital twinning work and working with our technical partners to help identify assets to aid our planning and maintenance programme,” Barrett says. “We are always looking at new ways we can apply technology to help solve problems or make things more efficient.”

Saving time, money and water

Severn Trent (SVT) has a drone enthusiast turned pro on its staff. Duncan Turner became the drone team leader when the company began routinely using the technology in 2017. In the first year alone, the company saved £750,000 on scaffolding and costs associated with asset inspections.

Turner says one benefit is the speed of inspections by drones compared scaffolding an asset for a manual inspection but explains the company’s vision for drone usage is centred on safety.

“Anywhere we can take the risk out of a job by using a drone; that is the vision of how we can roll out their use. Where we have people walking around sites that may encounter risk, we could look at using drones for inspections. An automated flight across an area can collect data in a safer manner.”

The technology these aircraft are equipped with include thermal sensors that can detect changes in temperature where water is being lost to identify and assess leaks, as well as scanners that can map the topography of assets in the dark.

Current projects

One project Turner and his team are working on is part of the 2030 net-zero commitment. Drones that detect and measure methane are being trialled to monitor the carbon released from SVT’s sites.

“We’re working on sensors and technologies to enhance what the drones can offer and monitor. The sensors detect carbon and methane and create a heatmap that we will use to monitor the methane released from a site. This builds up the intelligence piece on a site and other teams are installing technology to cut methane emissions, so using the drones to monitor that means we can see the visual reduction and understand total emissions.”

They have also partnered with Cranfield University to explore what totally autonomous drone flights could mean for the business. Each SVT site could, potentially, have its own drone in a box that could be programmed remotely and fly out, conduct its mission and fly back to its box ready for the next job.

At the moment the technology isn’t quite there and the BVLOS rules means this is not possible at present, but Turner believes the pace of change means it won’t be long before we see a regulation change – with strict controls until the technology is proven.

“It’s incredible how the technology has moved forwards even in recent years. The first drone I flew, I soldered it together myself and now all drones have dual batteries and dual systems. They’re incredibly safe to fly, but if there was a problem the secondary system can take over. There are strict safety procedures, but if they were to fail the drone knows where it took off from and can manoeuvre safely back and land itself.”

Visualising the future

Being able to operate multiple drones from multiple sites simultaneously could really open up the potential operations. Turner says utilising BVLOS would increase the efficiencies of how drones are used. “Some of our sites are several miles long and at the moment we can only fly 500m from the pilot, but being about to fly a couple of kilometres and capture the data within that area more quickly will bring huge efficiencies.”

Flying BVLOS would allow broader catchment area inspections to monitor the health of assets around reservoirs and feed data back with up-to-date visuals to spot any potential problems developing.

“Some of the current maps could be several years old but being able to fly in large areas around those reservoirs could bring that information up to date. The knock-on effect of that is water quality improvement in the reservoirs and that would have a positive effect on how we treat water.”

Whilst recognising the potential of BVLOS drone operation, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) says such a change is several years away because it requires technological advancements both for drone sensors and for other airspace users.

Jonathan Nicholson, assistant director of communications at the CAA, says it comes down to how to safely integrate the drones with everything else in the air – from light aircraft, military or emergency services helicopters, parachutists, paragliders and everything in between.

“Everyone involved in drones and airspace around the world is working on how to change that. If we’re going to maximise the potential of drones, we need them operating beyond the operator’s line of site and autonomously as well.”

He explains most activities people want to fly BVLOS for would be in uncontrolled airspace – basically not adjacent to or above an airfield. Controlled airspace where airliners fly has air traffic controllers in overseeing and directing everything in that space. Fitting drones into that mix, says Nicholson, is relatively easy because of the air traffic controllers.

Away from such space, there are no requirements for airspace users to have an electrical system or even a radio providing they avoid controlled airspace. Without detection equipment, there could be collisions with unmanned aircraft. So the challenge is to equip all drones with sense and avoid technology, or all the other airspace users to emit a signal informing drones of their presence.

Nicholson says: “A way to get beyond visual line of sight would be for everything in the air to emit a signal that can be detected by other air users. The drone could pick that up using GPS and can avoid it. That is the obvious way to fly beyond visual line of sight.”

But he admits the technology is not there yet and that, even once it is, there will need too ample testing before regulators accept it and create appropriate procedures and rules for users to follow. He says this is still several years away.

“When we reach that place, from a safety point of view, beyond visual line of sight will happen without having to think twice about it, Nicholson remarks. “But the technology, safety, procedures and rules all need to come together first.”

Case study: Engineering service provider LSTC recently completed a large drone laser survey to assist with a feasibility study for a local authority to build a new road. Surveillance work that would have taken 20 days using traditional surveying techniques was completed in just one. The drone used Lidar scanning – a method of measuring distance using lasers to survey the area quickly and accurately.

The survey area was then uploaded into an app and the drone worked out the most efficient flight path. As the drone flies, the Lidar unit emits signals measuring topography at a rate of 300,000 data points per second. A one-hour flight will create a point cloud of over one billion data points, allowing fast, safe and accurate 3D modelling of the landscape.