Home / Problems We Solve / Risky, slow inspections
IndustryDrone infrastructure inspection: no climbing, no shutdown
Climbing a tower or shutting down an array just to inspect it is slow, costly and dangerous.
Why replace manual inspection with drones?
Power lines, solar plants, telecom towers and pipelines all need regular checks. Doing that by hand puts people at height and can mean taking working assets offline.
Inspecting a tower, plant or pipeline by hand can mean rope access, work at height or stopping an asset. It is slow, so inspections may happen less often than anyone would like.
A drone gets close while the crew stays on the ground. Repeat flights along the same path also build a record, so you can see how a fault changes over time.
Signs you have this problem
- Inspections need rope access or work at height
- Assets must stop before they can be checked
- Reports vary depending on who did the inspection
- You cannot easily compare this year’s condition with last year’s
What to look for
- Thermal cameras for electrical and solar faults
- Close-range obstacle avoidance
- Automated repeat missions for change detection
- Structured reports with tagged defects
The main causes
Height and access
Rope access and climbing put people at risk.
Downtime
Some assets must be stopped for a close look.
Patchy records
Manual checks are hard to compare from one visit to the next.
Before and after
How to solve it, step by step
- 1
Fly
Automated missions follow the same path each visit.
- 2
Scan
Thermal and visual cameras capture the asset up close.
- 3
Tag
Defects are tagged in a structured report.
- 4
Compare
Repeat flights show what changed over time.
Common questions
What can drones inspect?
Our inspection work covers power lines, solar plants, telecom towers, pipelines and industrial assets.
Does the asset need to be shut down?
The aim is to inspect without shutdowns or rope access. Your own site safety rules decide what is allowed around live equipment.
Can a drone find faults people cannot see?
Yes. A thermal camera can show heat differences that may point to a fault, and engineers then confirm them.
Related problems
Long power lines to inspect
Transmission lines run for kilometres across difficult land, and climbing each tower is slow and risky.
Read moreSlow land surveys
Ground surveys are slow, hard over rough terrain, and only capture the points someone walked to.
Read moreToo much drone video to watch
Long missions produce more footage than any team has time to review, so important details get missed.
Read moreFacing this problem?
Tell us about your mission and our engineers will suggest the right platform or configuration.