Drone News & Articles

Big air kiteboarding is growing fast. When the aim is to achieve maximum height with everything you do, the faster you ride, the higher you fly. And what else can fly fast and high? FPV racing drones!

 

Poland-born Janek Grzegorzewski may have taken only 20 trips around the sun, but he is one of the most talented kitesurfers out there. The guy is known for putting on a show the moment he hits the water. And just last month, he took the crown at the Full Power Tarifa Kite Fest 2021.

Tarifa is hailed as the wind sports capital of Spain. Located at one of the southern-most points of Europe, where the Mediterranean meets the wild waters of the Atlantic Ocean, the small town attracts big air kiteboarders from around the world.

The wind speeds here average around 30 knots, sometimes going up to a crazy 45 knots. And its 35-km-long gorgeous coastline makes Tarifa the perfect spot for kitesurfing maniacs.

Now that you know where the action is going to take place, let’s introduce the other protagonist of our story: Colas Feuillie.

Feuillie, who goes by the name “Cola” in FPV drone racing circles, is best known for capturing wingsuit pilots with drones. His Instagram handle is full of so many unique and gorgeous videos that we might just do another post to highlight them.

As Grzegorzewski tells:

I messaged Cola on Instagram inviting him to Tarifa because of his original and high-quality content. Within the next three weeks of planning and organizing, Cola made the trip out to Spain. We were fully motivated to film content that has never been seen before. Unfortunately, many complications came our way… I got injured and dented my rib, the whole wind forecast went down, and things weren’t looking as promising as we planned.

So, with limited time on their hands, the duo headed out with seven drone batteries, each lasting three to four minutes only. That 30 minutes or so of raw footage they captured has now been compressed into a two-minute masterpiece we are proudly presenting here. 

Written by Ishveena Singh | 8 June 2021

If you’re into FPV drones, you’ve probably seen Johnny FPV’s mind-blowing video for the new Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo. And if you have seen that video, you must have wondered: How did Johnny Schaer capture those rocks exploding into the camera in slow motion? We have the answers.

To say that Porsche’s campaign video for its new Cross Utility Vehicle is thrilling would be an understatement. That video takes FPV cinematic content creation to a whole new level.

As Johnny FPV zips his drone through two identical race tracks, one in the sandy desert of Abu Dhabi and the other on a snow-blanketed frozen lake in Finland, he ensures that one “wow” moment follows another – punctuated by breathtakingly beautiful slow-motion sequences.

Capturing slow-motion shots with an FPV drone

If you aspire to fly like Johnny FPV, why not ask the man himself for advice, right? Lucky for you, Johnny is offering some behind-the-scenes golden nuggets in a series of short videos, explaining just how exactly he took on the Taycan Cross Turismo in the extremes.

The bare basic? You will need to get your hands on a FREEFLY Wave camera, which, ahem, costs a bomb. But the camera weighs only 700 g, which is pretty good for an 8- or 9-inch FPV drone setup

What’s insane is that the Wave camera supports frame rates of 422fps in 4K and 1461fps in 2K. For the Porsche video, Johnny went with the 4K 422fps setting and that was slow enough to deliver those dreamy sequences we cannot get enough of.

After that, it all boiled down to choosing the perfect moments where the car would be spitting up tons of dust or ice and planning the action around them. Listen to what Johnny says:

Written by Ishveena Singh | 18 June 2021

The enforcement of lobster trap rules far offshore is getting increased attention from state and federal regulators, who are turning to new technology to inspect gear for compliance with requirements that aim to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales from deadly entanglements.

Michael Henry is a top fisheries enforcement officer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration here in the northeast. He says physically inspecting bulky gear out in federal waters dozens of miles off Maine can be a daunting and time-consuming task.

"It's been a challenge for us for a long time to be able to effectively haul lobster gear offshore — just the environmental challenges, the safety challenges," he says.

But inspectors are checking to see if lobstermen are complying with requirements to insert weak links into their traplines, to help whales break through the rope, and to use rope that sinks to the bottom, instead of floating into the water column where whales are more likely to swim.

In federal waters, NOAA inspectors traditionally winch those trap-laden ropes to the surface for examination. But last year, the agency started testing remotely-operated underwater vehicles, or ROVs, outfitted with video cameras, to dive underwater and send images back to a vessel.

Only when potential violations are found does the officer then winch the gear up for a direct inspection.

"We did have some success: we identified gear with floating ground lines, missing trap-tags and unmarked surface gear," says Henry.

Henry says the agency is hiring a contractor to deploy the vehicles in the fisheries that lie farthest from shore more often this year, and may buy smaller versions for use by federal patrols closer in.

Some lobster industry advocates say NOAA needs to do more than just add ROVs to its toolkit.

"I don't know why NOAA is investing in that and not actually having the same sort of enforcement across all segments of the fleet," says Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen's Association.

McCarron is skeptical that the addition of ROVs alone will be sufficient once new gear rules are enacted this fall. Those will likely require ropes to have specific breaking strengths and diameters, and contain more weak links.

She says a new initiative by the state's Department of Marine Resources could help, though. As part of Governor Mills 'budget proposal for federal recovery plan dollars, DMR is asking for $3.3 million dollars for marine patrol infrastructure, including the purchase of a large vessel equipped to routinely handle the challenges of at-sea inspections.

"And actually be able to go out, patrol, haul gear, you know, buoy-to-trap, look at everything, haul the gear on board and be able to do true enforcement," says McCarron.

The Legislature's Appropriations Committee could act on that request next week.

Written by Fred Bever | 11 June 2021

A bird flaps its wings, glides using air currents and then smoothly descends to perch on a pole. But this is not just any bird, it's a robot bird. And robots like these could in the next decade be used to respond to emergencies or to hunt down drones posing a threat to safety or security.

Uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) are set to form a growing multi-billion dollar industry in the skies in the coming years, with rising potential for a wide range of uses from emergency assistance to drug delivery, home deliveries and precision agriculture.

In line with this, efforts are under way to bolster flight efficiency and the intelligence of UAVs to better navigate built environments. A variety of research groups are drawing their inspiration from nature, often birds—an original inspiration for human flight.

Professor Anibal Ollero, an electrical engineer at the University of Seville in Spain, says standard drones with propellers can currently fly for maybe 20 to 30 minutes, but that the bird-like designs he is working on have the potential to at least double this. "Conventional multirotors are very constrained in terms of time of flight and range," he said. "We want to increase this range by using the wind and the airflows."

The GRIFFIN project he leads is seeking to create prototypes of highly autonomous, ultra-lightweight robot birds that can minimise energy in flight, perch on curved surfaces, carry out tasks with moving limbs and artificial beaks, and intelligently interact with people and the environment.

The birds can also carry integrated on-board computers and cameras for visual navigation. "Birds have a very complex body and exhibit complex behaviors. What we are using is the inspiration in the birds to extract relevant features for our robotic ornithopters—aircraft that fly by flapping their wings," said Prof. Ollero.

Bird-like

To conserve energy, one of the researchers' aims is to use the wind to enable the robots to soar like birds, combining that with flapping when needed.

Apart from potentially boosting efficiency, Prof. Ollero says a bird-like design has advantages like the ability to reduce noise and improve safety in certain situations because of the absence of propellers and the use of soft, flexible materials like microfibre composites and nylon for the wings and tail.

 

This means they could be used, for example, to land on injured people and take biometric measurements or put a mask on them in a hazardous environment. "Propellers are not good for this interaction—they can hurt people," said Prof. Ollero.

Another application is in so-called 'contact inspection' in industrial plants, in areas where it may be dangerous for people to work because of the presence of gases. There, a robot could land on a pipe and measure its thickness to detect corrosion.

So far, the team has demonstrated flight with flapping wings both indoors and outdoors, and the ability to land on a small square platform 20 to 30 centimeters wide. The next challenge, which Prof. Ollero says is 'not trivial," is to get the birds to perch on curved surfaces such as poles or cables without overbalancing, and then coordinate other functions.

"What we want to demonstrate is these combined capabilities: being able to fly while saving energy, being able to perch, and being able to manipulate their limbs like a bird."

Challenges

For perching, as well as grasping, the team has been working with materials called shape-memory alloys to create bio-inspired claws that can deform to wrap around a pole—something Prof. Ollero thinks will be possible later this year when combined with machine learning. He also wants to add on-board intelligent sensing of wind to better harness air currents.

Apart from the complexity of coordinating functions, there are some other big challenges to overcome. For one, he says, transitioning between flapping and gliding is difficult, while depending on environmental fluctuations is not always reliable. As lightweight birds with on-board equipment, there are also challenges with the load they can carry—though Prof. Ollero says they had enough capacity to transport things like medicines.

"There is a lot of work to do on the integration of new technologies related to material science, mechanics, aerodynamics and artificial intelligence in our robotic birds," he added. However, he thinks such birds could be performing practical tasks by 2030.

Visual navigation is another challenge for robot birds, something the project HawkEye is investigating. Its studies into how vision guides flight in birds could potentially translate into more efficient guidance systems for UAVs.

Until recently, birds' in-flight vision had been little studied, says Professor Graham Taylor, a mathematical biologist at the University of Oxford, UK, who leads HawkEye. "It's just very hard to study in-flight. That's challenging until you've got miniaturized kit."

Miniaturization

Now, miniaturization has become possible through developments in mobile phone technology, allowing the creation of non-invasive attachable sensors and markers for measuring birds' head, eye and body movements with what Prof. Taylor describes as 'sub-millimeter precision." As a key part of the project, the researchers are using these miniature cameras and motion capture systems to enable 3D reconstructions of what birds see in flight.

His team has been studying how birds use vision in 'goal-directed behaviors' including pursuing prey and maneuvering around obstacles.

HawkEye has uncovered different strategies. The team found that peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus) use visual feedback for guidance in a similar way to visually guided missiles, making them highly efficient for chasing prey moving in a smooth, straight line.

In contrast, a later study found that Harris's hawks (Parabuteo unicinctus) use a 'mixed guidance' strategy to pursue prey through 'cluttered' habitats such as desert scrub or trees, improving performance for chasing agile, zigzagging targets.

Aside from the potential to apply this knowledge in navigation systems, it could be harnessed to help flying vehicles intercept drones that pose a threat. Though visually guided systems have been developed for missile interception, blocking drones in the more crowded urban airspace of cities and stadiums poses a new challenge, says Prof. Taylor.

This could gain importance given the expected growth in drones, he says, noting the 2018 drone scare at London's Gatwick airport that closed the runway for 33 hours and was estimated to have cost airlines tens of millions of euros.

"There is a gap at the moment for anything that's capable of going in and intercepting something safely. That's one of the things that birds are extremely good at doing."

Flights

Having observed more than 20,000 flights of hawks, falcons, finches and pigeons, Prof. Taylor says his team has gained a strong understanding of the underlying mechanisms involved in pursuit and obstacle avoidance, as well as perching.

'(We now have) a really good understanding of how birds are making use of vision to do that effectively in crowded environments," he said. "It's taken biomechanics and the study of flight into the era of big data."

Prof. Taylor adds that despite complex bird behaviors on the surface, there seemed to be a relatively simple underlying mathematical guidance law that captures most of the behaviors HawkEye has analyzed, potentially simplifying the creation of algorithms in UAVs that can then be tweaked for different purposes.

"It gives us a common framework for understanding a whole range of behaviors that might not initially seem closely connected," he said. "Now that we understand the algorithms, the next step is to start applying those on drones."

The algorithms could be applied to studying other complex behaviors in nature, says Prof. Taylor, while better knowledge on birds and their vision can help understand how they evolved to deal with different tasks, and help design structures such as buildings and wind turbines with cues to prevent birds from crashing into them.

Enrico Ajanic, a Ph.D. student in robotics at EPFL (the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) in Switzerland, who has been working on raptor-inspired drones with artificial feathers, says the different types of drones have different advantages at present—with multirotors being agile but with comparatively low endurance, while winged drones currently tend to have high endurance but low agility.

"There are many lessons we can learn from birds," he added. "They are highly skilled fliers that can negotiate many different flight regimes—fast, soaring, agile and slow flight, to name a few."

Pigeons

Ajanic said that apart from raptors, researchers can learn a lot from many different bird species. For example, despite their bad reputation, pigeons are also an excellent model for investigation because they can both reliably navigate in cities and fly long distances efficiently, he says.

But he says there are still many challenges, such as the sensitivity of bird-like drones to wind. There are also many questions to answer to improve both the biological understanding of birds and how this can be applied in drones, including how birds twist their tails when gliding and how to optimize the ability of wings to morph.

"There is still a lot of work to do before we can even approximate the flight abilities of birds," added Professor Dario Floreano, director of the EPFL Laboratory of Intelligent Systems and Ajanic's Ph.D. advisor. "Birds do not only fly, but also coordinate with each other, interact and change the environment, and make complex autonomous decisions that our drones can hardly match."

Yet though he says that drones can generate anxiety and risk of privacy violations, he thinks there are more positive potential impacts than negatives—with bird-inspired UAVs having the opportunity to significantly shape the future of drones.

"Such future drones will play an important role in aiding humanity in search and rescue missions, disaster mitigation or efficient delivery," said Prof. Floreano. "To successfully complete those missions, they will have to navigate autonomously in complex environments. Thus, the challenges such drones must overcome are very similar to the challenges birds are tackling every day."

Written by Gareth Willmer | 1 June 2021

France’s Val Thorens is reputedly the largest and highest ski resort in Europe. It’s also one of the most advanced in the world in using drones to ensure its runs and infrastructure are as safe – and clients protected – as possible.

 

DJI drones critical tools for ski patrols

Tucked away in the Trois Vallées area of the French Alps, Val Thorens has embraced drones as part of its wider use of remote and robotics in managing its 600 km of ski runs. The most crucial part of that work is done by the region’s 200-plus member ski patrol unit, which not only leads injury and rescue missions when they arise, but more broadly oversees and maintains slopes to reduce the risk of accidents. As they were doing that in 2019, the outfit’s leaders realized just how valuables drones could be to their efforts. 

Voilà the creation of Val Thoren’s Drone Cell – headed by three professional drone pilots with deep experience in mountain environments and ski operations. The team uses DJI Matrice 210 and Matrice 300 RTK equipped to keep components warm in temperatures as cold as -4F, and ensure maximum battery time of 30 minutes.. 

Not surprisingly, the most frequent calls from ski patrol members for accompaniment by the cell’s drones involve safety inspection of runs. Strictly manual checks require numerous descents to cover the entire surface of the run. Using drones affords pre-departure evaluation that lets patrols concentrate primarily on spots appearing to need the most work. Being trailed by the craft as those inspections unfold, in the meantime, can turn up previously unseen hazards, or catch repairs that may not have been sufficient or complete.

That utility is all the greater for off-piste zones located beyond designated runs. Their allure to expert skiers is the raw, unmaintained conditions and challenges they pose. Yet those also make hors-piste areas more dangerous to visitors – particularly from avalanches – as well as to ski patrols. Inspection via drone, therefore, offers a great enhancement in time spent and risks run.

Drone inspection of neat avalanche detonators

Drones are also used to troubleshoot Gazex installations. Those use pipes jutting from the mountain face, and connected to gas tanks below. When avalanches are considered a threat, ski patrols remotely set off an explosion of gas to provoke a controlled slide of snow. With drones at work, inspections of those far-flung units can be conducted at a distance, with human visits limited to needed repairs.

And, of course, drones have increased the speed and efficiency of assistance and rescue missions by getting to targeted venues fast –and beaming back informative video of scenes there. Drones are credited with saving a five full minutes of reaction time to respond to avalanche victims, whose survival window is just 20 minutes. 

Video from the craft also helps rescuers determine when sending in helicopters isn’t critical to saving lives or accessing injured people. That’s of no small consideration to tight-budgeted units that face $1,000 flight bills for each helicopter outing. The  drones also allow ski patrols to pre-identify hazards or troubles they may encounter once they arrive, and plan the fastest, safest routes back to resort facilities.

Written by Bruce Crumley | 3 June 2021

Man, they just keep on coming. But you know what, every single one of those drone videos emerging from Iceland are very different (or at least the ones we select for publication are). And this one? Wild.

 

It may seem like we’ve done our fair share of volcano posts. And, for sure, that’s true. But we don’t just grab anything and throw it up here. We try to keep our eyes out for something fresh and different. And this video truly fits that bill.

Let’s see why.

Drone hotspot

Sorry for the pun, but the volcano in Iceland has drawn photographers and adventurers from around the world. And a significant portion of the people making the trek are there to capture what they can with a drone.

And why not? You can see far more than you’ll ever see from a distant ground perspective. And, given the range of quality drones these days, you can fly from a considerable distance away without being concerned about a failed Command & Control link. (To say nothing of the noxious fumes and heat.)

Crater collapse

This featured video comes to us from Twitter user Sigurjón (Sjonni) Jónsson. His Twitter profile lists him as a professor of geophysics at KAUST in Saudi Arabia. And, as you know, a geophysicist is going to have a far better understanding of the mechanics of volcanoes than most of us.

Luckily, he’s also a drone pilot. And what he captured here is absolutely mesmerizing: a close-up shot of a partial collapse of the crater’s rim. It’s somehow reminiscent of iceberg calving, albeit at the very far end of the temperature scale. Once you start watching, we challenge you to stop:

Did you notice?

At around the 1:15 mark, the lava pool really starts to expand. And then you see a bright glow from the center, forming into a larger circle. At that point, you can see that Sigurjón starts to elevate his drone. Our guess is that he was anticipating another eruption (it sure looks like one was one the way), and wanted to ensure the craft would be out of the way of the lava.

Good pilots always pay attention and are ready to react – even if they’re transfixed by a volcano. Well done, Sigurjón.

Written by Scott Simmie | 31 May 2021

Norway-based DNV, an independent expert in assurance and risk management, has launched a research project to develop a framework for data verification and validation in fully automated drone inspections of wind turbine blades.

With the University of Bristol and Perceptual Robotics joining in as partners, DNV wants to address the need for reliable, fully automated processing of drone data in the UK inspection industry.

Right now, this process largely remains semi-autonomous with dependence on visual inspections of image data by trained experts. DNV and its partners, however, are looking to leverage machine learning technologies to create artificial intelligence (AI) models capable of autonomously classifying and segmenting drone data and detecting blade defects.

Now, before you point out that automated windfarm inspection is nothing new, note that Perceptual Robotics and the University of Bristol have also been working on this concept since 2017, thanks to a generous UK Innovate grant.

While Perceptual Robotics has been acquiring drone data in commercial environments, researchers at the Visual Information Lab at the University of Bristol have been utilizing their expertise in 3D computer vision and image processing to create algorithms for automated localization of inspection images and defect detection. What DNV adds to the mix is much-needed industry standardization and conformity.

Broader acceptance of autonomous drone inspections

As an energy industry expert, DNV’s role is to provide inspection expertise, verify the drone data collected, validate the methodology and performance of the AI algorithms, and provide guidance as to existing DNV and IEC recommend practices, regulations, and industry networks.

Explaining how this research project will provide a stepping stone to the growth of the fully automated drone inspection industry, Dr. Elizabeth Traiger, a DNV senior researcher in digital assurance, says:

This collaboration will develop and demonstrate an automated processing pipeline alongside a general framework with the aim of generating broader acceptance across the industry and informing future regulations.

The research project, which began in April 2021, is expected to run for 12 months. As Pierre C. Sames, group research and development director at DNV, sums up:

With the number of installed wind turbines worldwide increasing, including those in remote and harsh environments, the volume of inspection data collected is quickly outpacing the capacity of skilled inspectors who can competently review it. This research project will develop means to tackle this challenge through machine learning algorithms and process automation.

Written by Ishveena Singh | 17 May 2021

The Australian government is to develop an air traffic control-style system for drones, which will be created in collaboration with Defence, Airservices and CASA.

The announcement was made as Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack unveiled a new policy statement on the matter and promised to invest $35.7 million into the emerging aviation technology.

“The jobs, the economic stimulus and other social benefits drones could have for industries such as agriculture, as well as regional communities, are transformational,” Deputy PM McCormack said.

Plans for a Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM) system were one of the key pillars of the government’s National Emerging Aviation Technologies (NEAT) Policy Statement.

The document reveals the Department of Infrastructure will prepare an “action plan” to create an air traffic control style system that will work in conjunction with existing processes for traditional aircraft.

It will also include a new National Drone Detection Network that will use sensors to monitor the devices and safeguard privacy, noise and their use at cultural sites. It aims to begin initial operations in 2023.

“Growth in the use of drones and eVTOL  in Australia is estimated to support more than 5,000 jobs and a $14.5 billion increase in GDP over the next 20 years – of which $4.4 billion would be in regional areas across New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria,” said Deputy PM McCormack.

“The NEAT Policy Statement sets out how we will make the most of these opportunities.

“The government is working closely with industry and communities to build a first-class aviation technology sector that is innovative, safe and considerate of local environments and needs.

As part of the NEAT Policy Statement, the government will invest $35.7 million to establish the Emerging Aviation Technology Partnerships program, including a Drone Rule Management System and Drone Detection Network.

“The program will establish strategic partnerships with industry to support aviation manufacturing jobs and encourage adoption of emerging aviation technologies to address community needs, particularly in regional Australia,” the Deputy PM said.

“These partnerships will trial new service delivery models, such as using AAM to create regional passenger and cargo links, providing benefit for regional communities and their economies while also increasing business efficiency, and reducing carbon emissions through new technology.

“Other initiatives under the NEAT policy statement include developing frameworks for the Drone Rules Management System to coordinate operating rules on drones across all levels of government and the National Drone Detection Network.

“This will detect drone activity to address security risks and support enforcement of other rules such as safety and airspace regulations.”

The Deputy Prime Minister said drones have huge potential to boost the nation’s economy while creating jobs.

“There are many incredible drone opportunities already being explored or trialled that proves exactly that, such as using drones to deliver medical items in regional Australia, tracking sharks around our beaches or mapping bushfire movements to support our valiant firefighting efforts,” said Deputy PM McCormack.

“In agriculture, the 2020 report found using drones could support more efficient decision making to improve profitability for our farmers by decreasing planting costs by up to 85 per cent, just one of many examples of how supporting the use of drone innovation and technology can continue to assist hard-working Australians.”

In September last year, one of the key figures formulating Australia’s drone policy told Australian Aviation he thought the country would eventually need to use machine learning AI to control our crowded airspace.

Simon Moore, an assistant secretary of aviation safety and future technology at the Department of Infrastructure, said he thinks there will one day be “hundreds of thousands” of drones in the sky.

“The numbers of things that are flying in the sky is going to increase quite dramatically,” he said.

Written by Adam Thorne | 11 May 2021

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has announced that on May 14, one of its exploration vessels called Okeanos Explorer departed from Port Canaveral in Florida for a two-week expedition. The vessel has onboard an autonomous underwater vehicle called Orpheus that is a technology demonstration.

The autonomous underwater exploration vessel is a new class of submersible robots designed to showcase the system to help it identify and explore scientific features on the seafloor. Orpheus was developed by engineers at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and is an evolution of a vision-based navigation system previously used on Mars. The mission is conducting its explorations off the US East Coast in the Atlantic Ocean.

NASA says typically bulky, and power-consuming location-finding equipment like sonar would be required to navigate in the dark and murky waters near the seabed. However, Orpheus is using a low-power system of cameras and lights along with advanced software that makes it an order of magnitude lighter than most deep-sea submersibles.

Orpheus is smaller than an ATV and weighs about 550 pounds. Its design is meant to be nimble and easy to operate while rugged with the capability of exploring at depths that most vehicles can’t survive. Orpheus can work untethered almost anywhere in the ocean, including at the most extreme depths.

The project team hopes that eventually, a swarm of the underwater robots working as a team will build 3D maps of vast areas of unexplored ocean floor in the hadal zone covering regions deeper than 20,000 feet. Before the robot can be cleared to explore at such depths, it must be tested thoroughly in shallow waters. The team believes that in the future, Orpheus will put some of the most extreme ocean environments within reach of explorers ranging from deep ocean trenches to hydrothermal vents.

Written by Shane McGlaun | 16 May 2021

Sometimes it’s the modest, seemingly mundane ways that drones affect how people live and work that best illustrate the integral roles they now assume in daily life. Take, for example, how they’ve helped a budget-strapped organization cut the time and costs of repairing three Edwardian-era bridges in the east of England.

 

Bridge repair with drones

Drones deployed by the UK’s Network Rail have been credited with vastly speeding up surveying and planning time needed to service and repair three swing bridges in east England’s Norfolk County. Each of the structures – named for the way they pivot on central pillars from positions spanning opposite banks to stand parallel to water flows so boats can pass – are  well over 100 years old. That age, in addition to the antique mechanisms used to swing the bridges back and forth, has made a great deal of doctoring routine. 

In fact, supervisors say each structure gets at least one maintenance inspection per week, and over 20 unscheduled repair calls per year in response to breakdowns. That means countless hours of human travel and eyeballing, testing and restoration work. Network Rail decided there had to be a speedier, less expensive solution.

Enter the drones, horizon right.

Network Rail, which manages track infrastructure in Norfolk and most of the UK, has turned to drones as quicker-moving eyes in the sky. Video from the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) allows supervisors to get faster, fuller views from a greater number of angles. Using that, they prioritize repair and maintenance work fo spots needing them most – as well as those that clearly will soon. 

Drone economies reinvested in rails

Johnathan Harris, Network Rail’s designated project engineer for the swing bridges, calculates the increased efficiencies derived from UAV inspections will save over $141,000 per year, or over a million dollars within a decade. That may not sound like much in a billionaire’s world. But with Network Rail’s status as a quasi-public organization that largely relies on taxpayer money to function, any dollar saved is another precious pound it can reinvest back into the infrastructure.

And those savings in maintenance are just the start. Network Rail currently is preparing to launch a $7.8 million program to replace the hydraulic jacks, pipework, and lighting on all three bridges, and outfit them with new power systems. Harris says use of drones in the preparatory surveying and analysis process has shaved several months off the time humans working alone would have required to complete it. That translates into tens of thousands of dollars in surveyor’s fees economized by faster, cheaper, more mobile UAVs.

Harris calculates total economies realized through drone operation around the three bridges should exceed $10.6 million over the next 25 years. That’s a big chunk of change Network Rail may use to buy an entire fleet of drones to improve maintenance and repair work to its tracks across the UK.

Written by Bruce Crumley | 18 May 2021