Autel Robotics: Changing the face of inspection and survey in the telecoms sector

Interesting headline... but what do I mean?

Yesterday, I was with telecoms engineers conducting surveys and inspections of telecoms towers in the South of England. It was quite an overcast day with wind around 11 mph gusting 17. An engineer unpacks a huge drone and briefs on the survey and inspection required. The mission should take less than 30 minutes to gather all the data necessary to build the 3D models and take the inspection images needed by the broader engineering team.

Fast forward 30 minutes, and all done! Mission successfully completed!

The aircraft weighed in excess of 13.5kgs and cost over €13,500!

This was a particularly challenging site due to the extensive threats in the vicinity:

• A busy country road around 60m to the north;
• The target telecoms equipment was on top of a 120ft (36m) electricity pylon;
• 300,000 Volt power lines in very close proximity to the equipment; and
• 30,000 Watts of power emitted from the target equipment.

Why was I there?

I wanted to show that there are viable alternatives... a lower-risk, safer, more cost-effective way... with Autel Robotics ; spending vast amounts of money and buying big, heavy aircraft aren't important... data capture and output are the critical elements!

Enter the stage (from my jacket pocket)... the Autel Evo Nano... all 249g and a few hundred euros of it! The Nano was ready for the trial... so were we!

The results were incredible! The Nano was able to tolerate the conditions with ease:

• Stable in wind conditions;
• No image transmission interruption or failure due to the very high Wattage and Volts from the equipment; and
• No loss of programme function (in this case a range of 'Orbit' and 'Hyperlapse' amongst other functionalities).

With the data captured by the Autel Evo Nano in around 20 minutes, a 3D model and inspection image library were created to inspect this asset remotely. The model was suitable for the telecoms inspection.

If you are interested in learning more about how Autel Nano can support your survey and inspection needs, please contact an Autel Dealer here.