Black & Veatch’s application of drone technology to reduce the risks and costs of equipment tower inspections was recognized as one of the 20 Great Ideas for 2015 by the editors.
“Black & Veatch is honored to be recognized by the InformationWeek Elite 100 for our exploration of drone technology in tower inspections,” said Marty Travers, president of Black & Veatch’s telecom business. “Equipment tower inspections can be complicated activities requiring a great deal of planning and safety preparation. We are excited by the prospects of this innovative technology to reduce risks at climbs sites and improve the speed and quality of tower data collection.”
During the trial, Black & Veatch demonstrated that in some instances camera-equipped drone copters can obtain information similar to visual inspections conducted by climbing crews. Reducing the number of climbs would reduce risk at the tower site. In addition, automated, wireless transmission of data from the drone could lead to faster reporting, reducing overall project cost and increasing client satisfaction.
Black & Veatch also tested the use of drones along with other technology, such as photogrammetry techniques, which are used to represent existing environments in the form of 3D point clouds. Leveraging drones for photogrammetry has the potential to capture more area in less time than traditional methods such as terrestrial 3D laser scanning. It also can be performed at lower costs than traditional surveying processes. Similarly, wireless file transmission can speed the delivery of information and resulting 3D models into the hands of proposal and engineering teams.
2015 is InformationWeek's 27th year ranking the country's most innovative users of business technology. The InformationWeek Elite 100 tracks the IT practices of the nation's most innovative IT organizations, providing a unique opportunity to understand and examine the business practices of these firms across core areas of operations, including, technology deployment, IT budgets, business-technology infrastructure, and IT strategies.
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