Summiting mount regulation for utilities drone inspection programs
Learn how to unlock the future of utility inspections with Skydio's groundbreaking approach to Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations. As the utility sector rapidly adopts drone technology, mastering aviation regulations is crucial to fully realizing the benefits of autonomous operations. Skydio's regulatory experts have helped the New York Power Authority (NYPA), Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), Duke Energy, and American Electric Power (AEP) secure BVLOS waivers to enable their cutting-edge remote inspection programs.
Understand how Skydio simplifies FAA compliance, making it easy for utilities to implement advanced drone operations.
See how moving beyond Visual Observers can enhance efficiency, asset management, and facility security.
Discover the next steps in increasing drone autonomy for transforming utility maintenance and inspections.
Designed for utility executives, regulatory professionals, and tech innovators, this webinar will provide actionable insights on how to integrate advanced drone technology into your operations.
Learn more about Skydio Regulatory Services.
- Uh, I'm Daniel Jenkins, regulatory program manager here at Skydio,
- and I wanna thank you for taking some time to attend this webinar and learn
- more about Skydio's regulatory team and our approach to scaling
- utility operations.
- So first, you know, why summiting Mount Regulation?
- Now, the peak of Mount Regulation is really fully autonomous
- operations. So this provides data at scale
- without significant human oversight, and that supports the level of data
- needed to transition from time-based maintenance to
- condition-based maintenance.
- Now right now, there's not a defined regulatory framework
- to
- enable advanced drone operations, much like an
- uncharted mountain.
- And like a climbing expedition, the work we do is guiding folks on a
- journey toward that end goal. And one thing that helps you navigate
- the regulatory process is having expert guides to
- help you find that pathway to the summit, and our goal is to be that expert
- guide.
- So the regulatory here-- team here at Skydio is small
- but highly experienced.
- You know, really we are pilots and operations-minded
- individuals, so we understand what it's like to be out
- in the field
- trying to get value from drones.
- Now personally, I've worked in advanced drone operations
- for the past eight
- years. Prior to Skydio, I was at the MITRE
- Corporation, where I worked with state and local agencies like the
- Massachusetts Department of Transportation.
- So with MassDOT, I developed a statewide railway inspection
- waiver
- and worked directly with their inspection team on the design of those
- operations.
- And before MITRE, I was on a flight test team, you know,
- flying drones at
- crewed aircraft to test automated avoidance systems.
- Those operations carried a lot of inherent risk and really embedded
- operational and aviation safety into how I approach
- planning advanced operations.
- I've also worked on some industry consensus standards bodies around
- automated
- avoidance technology
- and contributed to the standard that informs the required
- performance of those systems today, as well as the test
- methods for determining that performance.
- Across my career, I've developed over 20 BVLOS waivers
- across
- various organizations and enabled BVLOS operations for nearly a
- dozen utilities, some of which are with us here today.
- Now, the drone regulatory landscape is really
- based in Part 107, which the FAA released in 2016.
- Now, Part 107 requires that the pilot operates within visual line
- of sight,
- and to fly beyond visual line of sight, you need a waiver for FAA
- regulations.
- So beyond visual line of sight, or BVLOS, is a term you're gonna hear me use a lot
- today. And effectively, what BVLOS means is flying where the
- pilot can't physically see the aircraft.
- So this can mean the pilot is out in the field
- and can't see the aircraft even
- though it's near them, you know, such as on the other side of a building,
- over a
- tree line, or just too far away.
- It can also mean that the pilot is in a different state entirely,
- flying the
- aircraft from their computer.
- So additionally, the remote pilot must have a remote pilot
- certificate,
- and there are some other limitations as well.
- Uh, to be able to operate outside of those
- constraints, you need a waiver.
- So why should you be interested in regulatory
- services for your drone programs?
- Now, visual line of sight is limiting, resource intensive, and
- time-consuming.
- You know, with all the repositioning that's required
- to keep that drone in line of
- sight, you end up spending a lot more time
- driving than you do flying.
- Now, the FAA process to get a waiver to go
- beyond visual line of sight
- requires specialized technical documentation, which can be complex to
- generate for your operations. The complexity of this process and the
- technical detail involved
- results in about seven out of 10 waiver applications being denied.
- Now, I can say that, uh, Skydio beats those odds pretty
- handily.
- Now, about Skydio. Uh, we are the largest drone manufacturer,
- and we've worked with over 100 utilities here in the US.
- Now, we go on site with the utilities and work hand in hand to deliver value far
- beyond providing the equipment. We're providing experts in utility
- operations, experts in automated equipment,
- and experts in the regulatory
- process to enable drone operations.
- East Coast, we've written waivers enabling the
- inspection of thousands
- of substations, tens of thousands of miles of utility line
- infrastructure,
- and 100 power generation facilities.
- Under these approvals, we help utility companies to meet their
- regulatory
- requirements, such as FAA inspections, increase operator
- efficiency, and increase safety by taking the human
- out of proximity
- to that energized equipment or off of ladders or lifts which
- pose a hazard.
- Now, what does this technology ultimately mean
- for your
- operations?
- Well, drones are really a data collection tool
- that's used to provide the levels
- of data needed to be able to transition from time-based maintenance
- to condition-based maintenance.
- Time-based maintenance carries risks with components that are being
- replaced too early, driving up that cost over time,
- or components that are replaced too late,
- which results in a failure that causes more damage.
- Fully transitioning to condition-based maintenance does
- require a significant amount of data.
- You need to be able to track each component,
- and that requires regular inspections
- at regular intervals to be able to build that history of the
- health of the assets and components.
- Now, on the left here, we have manual inspections,
- which are time and resource intensive and provide limited amounts of data,
- often in the form of images taken by hand or just in reports.
- As we move to the right, the first integration of drones typically
- involves
- line of sight operations.
- This carries many of the same limitations as manual inspections,
- and this can also be done beyond visual line of sight, which extends the
- range that each mission can be flown around the asset,
- but does require a waiver.
- So the limit here is really that you still have to send people
- out into the field,
- and so you don't see a significant benefit versus transitioning into
- remote operations, where you really start to see those
- increases in
- efficiency and the amount of data that you can collect.
- So remote operations removes the need to get
- personnel on site to collect that data,
- which lets you scale.
- Instead of having somebody drive out, physically prepare the drone, and then
- launch it, instead they just sit at their computer in
- an
- office and connect to the Dock drone.
- So you may have heard of this as a drone-in-a-box concept,
- but effectively the Dock is able to handle many of the manual parts
- of the
- operation and keep the aircraft protected from the elements.
- So beyond that,
- the next level of scale, and what really will enable system-wide
- transitions to condition-based maintenance or cen-
- is central digital monitoring.
- In this method of operation, one pilot is overseeing many flights
- occurring at the same time.
- This lets you scale your data collection without requiring a proportionate
- scale of your headcount.
- This is a little bit more advanced, and so we're gonna come back to this
- toward the
- end of the presentation.
- [mouse clicking] Now,
- what you're seeing on screen is what we call the Arc of Autonomy for
- drones.
- This maps pretty closely to the previous slide.
- And one thing to note here is that the green check marks above each of
- these
- stages denote where we have received regulatory approvals.
- So starting at stage one, you know, this is where you're sending your
- frontline
- staff and pilots out into the field to manually fly the aircraft.
- This is really useful for getting the technology in field, but
- really doesn't enable the benefits of drone operations to their fullest.
- Now as you move right into stage two, you're adding more automation for the
- pilot flying. They still need to be in field,
- but now there are
- tools such as mission planning and collision avoidance that
- reduce the pilot workload and increase their ability to operate
- safely.
- Manually flying near wires and other structures is challenging,
- and these
- tools help reduce the risk of flying into a structure.
- Now, stage three
- is where the operational benefits really kick in.
- So this involves having that Dock drone at your site,
- and instead of sending the
- pilot to the site, the pilot can remotely connect to the
- aircraft from their
- office and conduct the inspection.
- The drone lives in the Dock on site,
- and then the Dock allows the system to remain on site, ready to launch a
- mission at any point you need.
- The remote pilot can then connect from anywhere in the US and fly that
- aircraft instead of needing to go out and fly the mission via controller.
- Uh, the Dock also, in addition to, you know, protecting that aircraft
- from the elements,
- aids the pilot in meeting some of the regulatory requirements for
- pre-flight inspection of the drone and ensuring it's in safe condition for
- operation.
- Now, stage four really steps up the scale at
- which you can conduct these
- operations. So this is getting into that central digital monitoring.
- This involves one pilot operating many systems, and the yellow check
- here signifies that we've received an internal Skydio
- approval for this, but we just aren't quite ready to push
- this out for
- full customer use.
- We do have a regulatory pathway here, but we still need to finish our rigorous
- internal testing program.
- Now, stage five is the ultimate goal of
- integrating drones into
- your programs. Now, this is the peak of mount regulation.
- This is the end state of condition-based maintenance,
- and this removes the pilot from the operation entirely and uses
- autonomous operations to supply data on schedule or on
- demand without a human being required to fly that mission.
- So for a little bit of context on the regulatory history around
- utility operations,
- starting back in twenty twenty-two, we helped Dominion Energy with a power
- generation facility inspection waiver.
- Now, this required the remote pilot to be on
- site acting as a visual observer,
- which maps back to stage two of the Arc of Autonomy, or using
- frontline staff with drones manually flying missions.
- Moving forward to twenty twenty-three, we saw some pretty significant
- improvements.
- Both Dominion and New York Power Authority received approvals for
- Dock remote operations, pulling that pilot off site and
- reducing the number of truck rolls required to get those pilots to
- locations and be able to get data from those locations.
- With Southern Company, we were able to get more altitude, supporting
- more efficient mapping missions, inspection of larger assets.
- And with PG&E, we were able to expand the area where a Dock
- can operate.
- So in the context of substation inspections,
- this allows operations along the utility lines
- running into and out of the substation.
- So one way to think about this is operations, you know,
- inside the fence,
- where you're within the substation controlled area,
- versus outside the fence, where you're operating along right of
- ways and property that you don't control access to.
- Now this year, we've been expanding critical
- infrastructure operations,
- which we'll discuss a little, in detail a little bit further,
- and we've been enabling operations closer into airports and expanding
- operations using our newest system, the X10.
- So with these approvals, there are a few main
- considerations that need to be met to demonstrate to the FAA
- that an operation can be done safely.
- And when you're pursuing a waiver, that's ultimately the question
- that you need to
- answer for the FAA to be able to grant that waiver.
- Now, fundamentally, this means you need to mitigate air
- and ground
- risk. Air risk being collisions with other
- aircraft,
- and ground risk being collisions with persons or property on the ground.
- So we take advantage of the technology on board Skydio aircraft,
- some specific operational designs, and airspace awareness
- technology to satisfy these requirements.
- So let's look at those components in a little bit more detail.
- When looking at the air risk side, one of the main strategies we use is
- shielding. So you may have heard of it as masking or
- close proximity limited altitude operations,
- but essentially it involves flying near things that aircraft try to
- avoid.
- Now, there have been some studies that demonstrate there
- is a significant reduction
- in the likelihood of a collision with another aircraft in these environments,
- and that goes to help support the air risk component of the safety case that we
- present in these waivers to the FAA.
- Now, there are two types of shielding based on
- what is being overflown:
- critical infrastructure and non-critical infrastructure.
- So for non-critical infrastructure, this covers things like utility line
- inspections, while critical infrastructure includes
- things like your
- power generation facilities.
- Now, there isn't a clear-cut definition of what
- critical
- infrastructure is, but Skydio works with both you and the
- FAA to ensure that we get the maximum altitude for your sites
- to support the largest variety of use cases that you may have.
- Now, onboard autonomy is really what makes a Skydio
- drone unique. With the onboard collision system,
- Skydio can
- operate in confined and complex spaces without requiring
- expert pilot or putting a risk of damage to the near
- structures.
- With the addition of Night Sense on the X10, we can enable this
- obstacle avoidance at night as well,
- further reducing the ground risk of that operation.
- Now, geofencing is usually a regulatory
- requirement for these operations,
- and Skydio Site enables 3D keep in and keep out
- geofencing,
- which satisfies regulatory requirement and provides an increased operational
- safety by reducing the potential for pilot error when they're
- navigating the drone.
- Safe landing designations further reduce the risk of people on the ground in the
- event of an emergency with the drone, 'cause you're able to identify areas where
- people either can't access or will not be, and make sure that in
- the event of emergency, the drone is navigating toward those locations.
- So you couple that with the onboard avoidance, you know, mission planning, the
- navigation systems on board Skydio drones.
- This provides precise and readable positioning of the system in
- the
- environment,
- which really enables the ability to automate repeatable inspection missions.
- And all of this goes to demonstrating that the drone is not gonna pose an
- additional risk to people on ground
- and really supports that ground risk component of the
- argument.
- Now, the, the last layer here is ADS-B
- or automatic dependent surveillance broadcast,
- and we use this coupled with shielding
- to help secure waivers. Now, at a high level,
- there are two components to ADS-B, out and in,
- and these function about how you'd expect.
- ADS-B out broadcasts position information as well as heading,
- speed, and some other info,
- and ADS-B in receives this information, and then it can be
- displayed on a ground control station or
- GCS for the remote pilot situational awareness.
- Now, with shielding, we fly where aircraft
- are not expected to be,
- but drones still have the regulatory requirement to give way to all other
- aircraft. So on the right, you can see an image of
- the GCS map view and the information received from the
- ADS-B out, which is translated into a pip on the
- screen that shows
- the location of the aircraft as well as the altitude and speed.
- So with the development of the X2 Dock in twenty
- twenty-three, Skydio began integrating ADS-B in for
- remote operations to provide that situational awareness to the
- remote pilot for aircraft that are transmitting.
- Looking at the right side of the screen here, this is how we display ADS-B
- information in remote flight deck, and filtering has been
- integrated with that ADS-B functionality.
- This also includes automated alerts for the remote pilot when an
- aircraft transmitting ADS-B gets too close to the drone.
- That alert is both audible and visual, which
- satisfies the regulatory requirement for alerting that we typically
- see in certificates of waiver.
- And certifica-certificates of waiver are the document
- that the FAA issues to you when they approve
- a waiver for your operations.
- Uh, and that contains a list of, you know, items, you know,
- conditions and limitations that you need to comply with.
- So this ultimately aids the remote pilot in choosing the
- best course of action
- to avoid a potential collision and ensure that that operation remains
- safe.
- So rolling all this up, you know, what does this approach mean for you
- and the operations that we can enable today?
- Well, really, ADS-B is simple to use alongside Skydio
- automation.
- The automated alerts and information displayed to the pilot
- Ensures that they are able to avoid potential collisions
- with other aircraft
- without it being a significant workload for the pilot to
- manage and interpret all that airspace awareness information.
- ADS-B and shielding are really easy to scale across your
- service
- area.
- The equipment is lightweight and affordable.
- And while shielding does limit the altitude,
- many of the use cases that you will need a drone to accomplish
- often require positioning close to the equipment that is actually providing that
- shielding.
- So this is ultimately the most streamlined and simple way
- to get your drones flying useful, fully remote missions today.
- And we've demonstrated that this is a repeatable regulatory approval.
- As that regulatory hurdle has been cleared, this means
- that you can scale with this
- technology today, and you won't need to implement more
- costly or complex technology to execute at
- scale.
- With these mitigations in place, you'll be able to see immediate, real
- operational benefits without a ton of extra equipment that you have to set
- up. So this leads to things like faster
- response times by
- having a sensor on-site that can be launched remotely,
- and ultimately a
- reduction in truck rolls out to locations.
- There's an added safety bonus here too, of providing your
- personnel in the field with situational awareness before they arrive on
- site.
- During a downed power line event, for example,
- knowing where those lines are and being able to see the
- environment ensures that personnel can arrive prepared for the
- emergency
- and remain safe while resolving that emergency.
- So now that we've covered the underlying tech and the strategy that
- we use, let's map this across to some of your use
- cases.
- So we're gonna cover a few major categories of
- operations being undertaken today from a regulatory
- context.
- And then I'm also gonna go into some of the use cases that fit within those
- categories to really connect the dots between the regulatory
- process and what you'll see operationally.
- So beyond visual line of sight operations with a visual observer
- come in two flavors with Skydio equipment.
- The first here is the remote pilot being out in field and
- functioning as that visual observer.
- So this requires a part one oh seven dot three one waiver.
- And when thinking about the benefits of waived operations with
- the remote pilot in the field,
- what this does is really increase the range that the remote pilot can
- operate.
- This increase in range reduces the amount of time that that pilot is gonna
- spend repositioning to complete their mission, pushing up that efficiency.
- Additionally, for more complex environments where
- there's a lot of
- structures that the drone is gonna be moving in and out of,
- you don't need to continually reposition to maintain that visual line of sight
- as it's navigating around structures.
- Now, the second flavor, uh, beyond visual line of sight with a visual
- observer, uh, is something we refer to as remote ops
- without
- a dock.
- So this involves the remote pilot being off-site and having a visual
- observer on-site.
- The big advantage here is that you don't need to train all your
- frontline staff to
- be remote pilots on top of their day jobs.
- With a handful of people that are specifically trained as pilots,
- you can support flight operations across your entire service area, and you don't
- have to ship those pilots all over the place.
- So this carries the same operational considerations as the remote pilot being
- on-site,
- but it lets your drone program be a lot more flexible and responsive
- across your service area.
- Now, both of these can provide benefits to your
- program today.
- As you can see on the right side, these staff are able to document
- assets and components without needing to lift themselves to the
- top of the asset, which increases the safety for your field
- personnel. And one add- added benefit with the
- X10 is that you can also collect radiometric thermal imagery at the same
- time, providing greater insights into the health
- of your assets.
- So when we're looking at, you know, that stage three, moving to fully remote
- operations,
- these use that ADS-B and shielding in combination.
- So the first category here involves operations over general areas
- that don't qualify as critical infrastructure, and this requires a
- part one oh seven dot three one waiver to be obtained.
- So this is where remote operations really start, where that drone is
- gathering data with no personnel on site.
- The shielding volume is fifty feet around obstacles,
- obstructions,
- and manmade objects, which is, you know, the technical term for
- most things that stick out of the ground.
- The shielding volume supports many of the inspection and
- monitoring use cases that we see in utilities today.
- From, you know, looking at insulators on lines,
- uh, to checking gauges, these operations require the sensor
- to be relatively close to the asset to be able to actually get that
- information.
- So when we're thinking of, you know, the specific use cases and the, the
- advantage that you see with stage three,
- the benefit is, you know, being able to
- get that data without needing to roll the truck and move a
- person to the site. So those missions can be flown manually,
- uh, or using preplanned missions.
- So if you have a routine inspection that you need to conduct on a set
- schedule,
- you can program that mission once, and the drone is gonna repeat
- that same mission
- every time.
- Uh, because there are no personnel on site,
- that remote pilot can connect to the aircraft from the office, execute
- that preprogrammed mission.
- And get that data back without ever having to roll a truck or go out
- into the elements. And with this workflow, you can really start
- developing your strategies to transition from time-based
- maintenance to condition-based maintenance.
- You know, ultimately, that transition involves a lot of data
- management,
- and understanding how you get that data into your systems is the
- first step.
- So with
- dock and road ops here, uh, the next phase of shielding
- is operations over critical infrastructure,
- uh, which requires a 107.31 waiver.
- Now, this permits operations up to 200 feet
- across the operations area
- and up to the height of any structure that is higher than 200 feet.
- So this increase in altitude supports more efficient mapping and
- other large area operations, as well as digital twinning
- efforts for larger structures.
- When we're looking at the use cases, there's a similar thread with
- non-critical infrastructure shielded operations.
- And again, big advantage not rolling that truck to put personnel
- on site to conduct the mission.
- So this supports things like substation inspections, allowing you to conduct
- fully remote operations there, and gives you the ability to automate
- those
- inspections.
- So those preprogrammed missions take advantage of that Skybo-
- Skydio onboard autonomy that we were talking about earlier to provide
- you with precise positioning of the drone within the substations.
- So this means that if you take a picture of a gauge,
- you can be sure that the
- drone and the camera are gonna point in the right direction
- from the right position
- every time.
- The same critical infrastructure shielding applies to your power generation
- facilities.
- And again, operations at high altitudes supports more
- types of operations.
- So when considering a power generation facility, you can inspect the
- assets, document the construction of expansions at
- the site,
- or conduct perimeter security missions and check your fence lines.
- And we work with you to ensure that the way application is as
- flexible to your use cases as possible.
- Now, when considering inspection at a power
- generation facility,
- that workflow is gonna be very similar to how you fly the rest of your
- inspection missions with Skydio equipment.
- This repeatability across use cases makes training and
- safe operation a lot more streamlined for your remote pilots,
- and really helps ensure that you have reliable
- and repeatable data collection
- across your entire service area.
- So now that you have some context on, you know, where utility inspections
- are today from that regulatory perspective,
- we're gonna go back to the central digital monitoring
- and, and look at that a little bit more.
- So central digital monitoring, which is sometimes referred to as
- one-to-many operations,
- takes the advantages we discussed for remote operations and increases
- the scale without increasing that head count.
- Flying multiple aircraft at the same time inherently increases the workload of a
- pilot, so additional automation is necessary to ensure that the
- pilot can manage that workload without a loss of
- situational awareness or safety of flight.
- Without that automation, the pilot is unable to control more than a
- few systems at once safely,
- and there is a regulatory limitation that says you can only operate one
- drone at a time.
- Now, the core autonomy that we discussed earlier
- is a key component of enabling
- this step in driving efficiency and repeatability for remote
- inspection operations,
- and operations in this category involve a 107.31,
- which is beyond visual line of sight waiver,
- and 107.35, which is that, you know, one pilot
- to one aircraft regulation that I mentioned.
- Skydio has already received a waiver, uh, of
- 107.31 and 107.35 for internal system use,
- and we've demonstrated a viable regulatory pathway to enable this
- functionality.
- So when it's fully released, we have that pathway to obtain
- approvals for your operations.
- Now, there are a few key takeaways that I wanna hit on again.
- You know, Skydio works hand in hand with our
- customers to make not
- only the regulatory process, but setup, install, and operation
- as straightforward as possible.
- You know, we know that aviation regulations
- are not your day job, and
- we do our best to make sure that they don't limit what you need to do
- to get your
- work done.
- Skydio has the regulatory expertise to maximize what you
- can achieve under a waiver, and we leverage that to get the most out
- of your approvals while still being able to get that
- yes from the FAA.
- And finally, there are well-defined regulatory pathways to
- enable your
- missions today.
- As an industry, drones have come a long way in the past 10
- years,
- and we're able to take advantage of many of the historic lessons learned
- to deliver that value to you without needing to reinvent the
- wheel and learn those lessons yourselves.
- So I know we covered a lot of ground here today,
- uh, so I wanna open it up for questions with
- the time that we have left.
- All right.
- So first up here, uh, Corey Ross, "Are
- utility BVLOS COAs dependent on remaining within the
- bounds of their properties?"
- If not, would that commitment make obtaining the
- VLOS COA easier?
- Uh, so as, as far as,
- you know, BVLOS waivers, um,
- the way that we generate those, uh, we sit down with
- you ahead of time and define the operational areas.
- Uh, so as far as the property type itself,
- your property, uh, that you control access to has a lower
- ground risk because, you know, you know whether people
- are going to be there or
- not.
- Um,
- and that makes the ground risk argument a little bit clearer.
- Uh, now as far as, you know, operations along your
- right-of-ways, you know, that's not necessarily your property,
- but you have
- access to it. And so, uh, like I was talking about with
- the PG&E waiver at the beginning,
- uh, we were able to get the waiver for
- operations both within their property in the substation
- and along that right-of-way. So one thing to keep in mind there is that
- there's still a, you know, regulatory requirement that you don't fly
- over people.
- Uh, and
- being over your property and your right-of-way helps ensure
- that you're not going
- to be operating over people.
- Uh, additionally, with the X10, uh, we have a, a parachute
- that's gonna be coming out,
- and that parachute coupled with the X10 is going to be able to
- support, uh, beyond visual insight waivers
- that will include operations
- over people.
- Uh, and so that pathway is, is going to be, uh,
- you know, a lot, a lot more streamlined, uh, moving forward here.
- Uh, so next up is Daniel Saint. "Do you need a
- radar system to clear the airspace in order to operate the UAV
- remotely?"
- No. You don't need a radar system,
- uh, when you're operating with that combination of shielding and
- ADS-B.
- Um, the shielding helps limit the number of
- aircraft that would
- potentially pose that collision risk just inherently,
- and then the ADS-B covers all cooperative aircraft in the
- area.
- So those two pieces in combination are, you know, sufficient to
- provide high confidence that that airspace is cleared.
- All right. Jeremy Storer. "Is the
- last phase of the evolution from time-based maintenance to
- condition-based maintenance essentially eliminating the need for human
- inter-intervention on each individual flight using automation,
- et cetera?"
- Uh, yes. So,
- humans generally are bad at
- monitoring tasks, uh, which involves just sitting and looking
- at a thing for an extended period of time and trying to identify
- change.
- Drones are really good at, you know, what we call the dull,
- dirty, and dangerous.
- And, you know, monitoring flights are ...
- usually fall into that dull category.
- Uh, so the advantage here is that the drone goes out, collects that
- information, pushes it back to you,
- and then from there, either you're running, you know, image
- processing models on top of all that data that's been collected,
- and then where a fault is noted or, you know, something
- out of the ordinary is noted,
- that's when it gets pushed to a human to look at it and
- interpret what's going on. Uh, so humans are very good at
- interpreting things from, from imagery,
- and drones are good at, you know, the boring part of collecting all of that
- imagery. Uh, so that ultimately becomes the breakdown
- in that
- end state.
- Uh, Curtis Day. "What is the maximum
- distance an autonomous flight can be from a dock for a BVLOS
- operation?"
- Uh, so this
- is a little bit of a complicated question.
- Um,
- as far as the regulatory side,
- the maximum distance is however far,
- uh, we can make the, the safety case.
- Um, so fundamentally that boils back down into the equipment.
- Uh, so right now the kind of rule of thumb
- that we're using is two statute miles, and that's based
- on command and control link,
- um, you know, the abili- the battery life for the aircraft, et
- cetera.
- And so, you know, that's more of an operational limitation
- than it is a
- regulatory one. Uh, you know, as battery life
- improves, endurance improves, and, uh, command and
- control links improve,
- the regulatory part is not gonna be a blocker to expanding
- that range.
- And then Jeremy Storer again.
- Uh, "Are the regulatory successes so far all
- within the US?
- Any in Canada?"
- Uh, so personally, I have worked on some SFOCs in
- Canada,
- uh, while I was at a previous job. Uh, so I have some experience there.
- As far as Skydio, uh, what we talked about today
- was all in the US.
- Uh, and, you know,
- everything here has been kind of FAA-centric.
- Uh, as far as Transport Canada, they have a lot of similarities
- between, you know, the FAA and themselves,
- uh, but we're continuing to work with them.
- So,
- I think
- ... Well,
- I think that is all the questions that I'm seeing in here.
- So yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna wrap it up.
- Again, thank you all for attending.
- Uh, my colleague Corey Hitchcock, uh, as well as T.F.
- Butler from Dominion Energy are gonna be talking about conducting
- remote asset inspections from your office chair on August
- 7th. You know, and that maps back to that stage three fully remote
- operations.
- Uh, you can find a link to register for
- that in the chat, and I wanna thank you
- again for joining.
Watch Time
36 Mins 55 Secs
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