E!12528 Long-Range Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) for Automatic Power Line Inspection and Documentation

SEVISI is a consortium consisting of Sevendof and SINTEF from Norway, together with Visimind from Sweden, formed to carry out the Eurostars-project "Long-Range Unmanned Aircraft System for Automatic Power Line Inspection and Documentation". The power grid is a vital part of society, and power lines must be inspected both yearly and after heavy weather events to guarantee the supply of energy. This is usually handled by companies such as Visimind who fly helicopters with a sensor package to collect image and laser data of power lines and their surroundings, which are reviewed by domain experts from the utility companies to plan maintenance. The goal of the Eurostars-project is to develop a new drone system to automatically gather inspection data for power lines which reduces costs, and improves environment, health, and safety aspects compared to current helicopter usage. Sevendof will in the project develop a drone vehicle with long flight range and flight duration, with assistance from SINTEF for the optimization of aerodynamics and mass. The flight range and flight duration is enabled by a gasoline-electric hybrid engine developed by Sevendof in the project. Together with the drone vehicle, a drone station will be developed in the project by Sevendof and SINTEF, which will support automated take-off, landing, and fueling, in order to enable automated missions without personnel in the field. Throughout the project, Sevendof will also develop a simulator to validate the behavior of the drone vehicle and drone station within a realistic environment. Visimind will in the project develop a new sensor package with a weight and form factor specialized for the inspection of power lines from a drone vehicle. The desired result from the project is an industrial drone network capable of automatically gathering inspection data for power lines, where a set of utility companies can share a drone infrastructure, resulting in reduced costs and improved availability for each user.

SEVISI har i prosjektet utviklet og validert teknologier nødvendig for automatisk langdistanse operasjoner for inspeksjon av kraftlinjer. Prosjektet har muliggjort innovasjonssamarbeid og kommersielt samarbeid mellom Sevendof og Visimind, som har resultert i felles kommersielle prosjekter fra 2021. Videre har prosjektet resultert i vitenskapelige artikler publisert i samarbeid mellom SINTEF og Sevendof som kommuniserer oppnådd læring relatert til aerodynamisk forståelse av dronefartøy.

SEVISI is a consortium consisting of Sevendof and SINTEF from Norway, together with Visimind from Sweden, formed to carry out the Eurostars-project "Long-Range Unmanned Aircraft System for Automatic Power Line Inspection and Documentation". The power grid is a vital part of society, and power lines must be inspected both yearly and after heavy weather events to guarantee the supply of energy. This is usually handled by companies such as Visimind who fly helicopters with a sensor package to collect image and laser data of power lines and their surroundings, which are reviewed by domain experts from the utility companies to plan maintenance. The goal of the Eurostars-project is to develop a new drone system to automatically gather inspection data for power lines which reduces costs, and improves environment, health, and safety aspects compared to current helicopter usage. Sevendof will in the project develop a drone vehicle with long flight range and flight duration, with assistance from SINTEF for the optimization of aerodynamics and mass. The flight range and flight duration is enabled by a gasoline-electric hybrid engine developed by Sevendof in the project. Together with the drone vehicle, a drone station will be developed in the project by Sevendof and SINTEF, which will support automated take-off, landing, and fueling, in order to enable automated missions without personnel in the field. Throughout the project, Sevendof will also develop a simulator to validate the behavior of the drone vehicle and drone station within a realistic environment. Visimind will in the project develop a new sensor package with a weight and form factor specialized for the inspection of power lines from a drone vehicle. The desired result from the project is an industrial drone network capable of automatically gathering inspection data for power lines, where a set of utility companies can share a drone infrastructure, resulting in reduced costs and improved availability for each user.