National Grid to test assessment data automation with drones and AI
UK’s National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) is launching a 12-month trial of a system that seeks to fully automate the capture and processing of corrosion-related condition assessment data.
Formed through a collaboration with deep tech start-ups Keen AI and sees.ai, the system uses automated drones flown ‘Beyond Visual Line of Sight’, which refers to operating drones at distances outside the normal visible range of the pilot.
The drones will be flown at such a distance to gather detailed close-quarter data, which will then be processed using artificial intelligence (AI).
Mark Simmons, conditioning monitoring manager at NGET, stated: “Maintaining and investing in our transmission infrastructure is critical to a safe and reliable electricity network.
“This technology will be vital in the future as we connect more and more renewable and low carbon power, expanding our network and delivering world class reliability. We look forward to the technology complementing the methods we currently use to help our operational teams manage safety, inspections and maintenance.”
Currently, these images from drones are captured and processed manually by a pool of inspectors with pilots carrying drones to the site of each asset due to be inspected and then keeping them in sight at all times while flying.
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This trial aims to enable a fleet of connected and autonomous drones to be flown nationally under licence from the Civil Aviation Authority and under the supervision of remote operators in a secure Remote Operation Centre.
By automating this data capture and processing these assessments, the following benefits are hoped to be accrued:
• Enabling the capture of data that’s optimal for automated processing
• Increasing the speed, efficiency and consistency of data processing
• Predicting the future state of a pylon and the impact of any maintenance work
• Reducing the risk and environmental impact of data capture
In a statement, Amjad Karim, CEO of Keen AI, commented on his excitement for the collaboration: “National Grid has been conducting the end-to-end asset management process for steel lattice towers, from data collection to execution, for many years now and are seen by many as the leaders in this field.
“I’m really excited to be using sees.ai’s autonomous drone tech to collect data, which hands off to our systems to automatically assess corrosion and propose maintenance or replacement work.”
John McKenna, CEO of sees.ai, added: “National Grid’s requirement to carry out detailed close-quarter inspection of steelwork and components on the transmission network is a perfect fit for our technology.”
NGET owns 21,900 steel lattice pylons that carry overhead transmission conductor wires in England and Wales.
Transmission pylon steelwork condition can deteriorate through corrosion, so periodic assessments are made to understand the health of the network.
NGET inspects around 3,650 steel lattice pylons each year, capturing high definition still colour images of steelwork using helicopters and manually flown drones.
