Firmmatek meets the challenge of inspecting 10,000 poles in one week
See how the Firmatek team was able to inspect 10,000 utility poles in just one week. By using Skydio drones, they were able to collect detailed data on each pole, including its condition and any potential issues that needed to be addressed. This data was then used to develop a comprehensive maintenance plan to help prevent outages and improve the reliability of the utility's infrastructure.
Learn more about Skydio for Utilities.
- We're just scooting along.
- This is kind of a neat spot here just because there's two different utilities
- and you can
- see the one we're inspecting goes under.
- So that's an opportunity for a disaster if you don't have some of the sense and
- avoid
- capabilities of Skydio and their obstacle avoidance.
- So this is where we started.
- We came up through here.
- That new section line was right here and we went to the left, captured all of
- those,
- and now we're working our way back this way.
- So we kind of have a self-imposed goal of ten thousand poles in one week.
- So we're about fifty four percent done as of last night.
- So Fermatik, back in the late eighties, they were using ground surveys to get
- volumetric
- for a lot of our mining clients.
- So they started dabbling in some laser scanners to count rocks essentially,
- right?
- And it's like, hey, well, what if we can fly this over here instead of having
- to drive
- it around or walk it around?
- That was kind of where we started dabbling in drones back in 2013 and it
- rapidly became
- a staple in our toolbox as far as how we collect data and what we do with the
- data on the back
- end.
- Google Earth said there was a road right behind us, but there isn't lies.
- I'm inspecting the pull top, pull top rock, bad insulators, missing washers,
- bolts, nuts.
- That next pull down, the one right there, that has that glass insulator on top.
- That's original, original, original right there.
- For the most part, most utilities don't inspect the tops of the poles because
- it's pretty labor
- intensive and the legacy kind of methodology is a guy in a bucket truck.
- Those setting up on each pole, but that's very time consuming, right?
- These are obviously right along the side of a road, so access isn't necessarily
- an issue,
- but back there at the corner where that line cut across, that's across the
- pasture.
- So now you got gates, you got to open and close off road conditions.
- When you start getting into some of those more rural areas, the time on target
- is already
- significantly higher.
- So you're looking at like 15 to 20 minutes to get that good thorough inspection
- , which
- is going to be the most comparable to what we're doing with a drone, and you
- can see
- how fast we're going.
- I mean, you're looking at 20 to 30 seconds per pole, and it's difficult to see
- on the
- controller, so having that secondary checkpoint of Skydio to maintain that
- level of safety
- while flying is imperative.
- And on top of that, you're getting good detailed imagery of each pull top, so
- your distributed
- assets are now being documented.
- All those images are geotagged, lat-long, so they're assigned to that
- particular asset.
- So you're starting to build, at that point, a library of your distributed
- assets.
- So we'll come back in four to five years to inspect the same line again.
- We'll have that library of images from the last time we inspected it, and now
- we can start
- comparing those images.
- The data that we're pulling not only gives decision makers the information to
- start making
- better business decisions, but also gives them the data to start projecting on
- projects
- coming down the pipeline.
- So a bunch of fun stuff.
- Yeah.
- Fun little snapple facts.
- Honestly, I don't think I could crash that if I tried.
- Got caught in the trees.
- I couldn't personally get out, but then I just pressed return home, and the
- drone actually
- got itself out, so the drone is actually probably a better pilot than I am.
- Yeah, it was really cool.
- We rely so much on electricity.
- Even an hour worth of outage time is just going to be unbearable for the end
- customer.
- I never call the utility unless my power is out.
- And my overall satisfaction with the utility is generally 100% satisfied if I
- never have
- to reset 12 clocks and a half.
- So when you start looking at how that translates and benefits, and with more
- and more things
- having electronic components and relying on electricity as a whole, we can now
- provide
- the utility with an overwhelmingly efficient way to make sure that the
- reliability metrics
- are met.
- I'm not going to do too much math in public, but if you want to kind of dive
- into what
- that ROI looks like, if you're safe and you have reliable power, then your
- customers
- generally are going to be super happy with the service that you're providing
- them.
- So boom, get the hatchback of KPIs in one turnkey application.
- Are you planning on getting this bird back today, or can I use it the rest of
- the day?
- I do.
Watch Time
5 Mins 36 Secs