We're thinking of flying at ~150' AGL or ~100' ATO at over 20 mph to collect data when automated. There's trade offs between effective speed, localized navigation, and mission planning. It's just challenging to build fully automated systems, but generally speaking flying higher and faster is more efficient and safer (also helps with command-and-control links)
This is a tough problem to solve and for a lot of operators ultimately comes down to cost.
We're based in the UK but reach out if you wanna chat!
And yes-- certainly a tough problem to solve! There’s pattern we keep seeing in the utility inspection space where teams start with a great defect detection or analytics product, then try to verticalize by adding data collection, basically spinning up a small aviation operation inside a SaaS company. I'm sure you've seen this plenty of times. Our hope here is to make collection simple enough so that doesn't need to keep happening :)
I'll reach out!
So the solution here is a deep understanding of FAA BVLOS waiver processes + a drone/pad network that is actually scalable.
That said, this is another benefit of working with utilities. When you’re inspecting power line corridors, you’re often operating in what the FAA calls “shielded area.” In practice, that just means you’re flying close to infrastructure that other aircraft tend to avoid anyway. That makes deconfliction much simpler, which in turn makes BVLOS waivers more attainable under Part 107.
The bigger shift is Part 108, which is expected to be finalized relatively soon, and should lower the barrier to BVLOS at scale.
Delivery drones are leaving line of sight and yet they are operating. The Walmart near me started delivery late last year, and they are buzzing my area many times a day. I'd hope with enough testing these guys can work with the FAA to get certified to remove this limit.
It's also mechanically complex and there's many line & pole types that make it challenging to build for.
When we let go of distribution line charging, we considered this idea. Off some rough calcs we thought there would be lines that we'd get 'stuck' on so that was hard to overcome...
Just another suggestion of a sector you could gain traction as it wasn't listed.
We see less delta in our service (but still something). There's certain perspectives only our aerial vantage point could capture, but we're too focused on power utilities right now to run that to ground just yet.
Curious, does a straight flyover of lines/towers/poles offer the footage necessary, or do you have to orbit the support structure to see enough detail? That would obviously add much more time/expense.
Think verifying hail claim insurance for farmers (no need to send a guy out there), or helping NOAA assist truck drivers with weather conditions on interstates etc. etc. (the list is very long)
Maybe we'll cover all that surface area ourselves, but that sounds pretty challenging.
A good proxy is satellite companies. They're typically just a API call for data, not full-stack collection + analysis.
For utilities, we'll probably stay vertical, so that we have our first 'application' to bring our data to market. We'll see.
Also - at scale we're excited to help build physical world models with our data. To be seen if this is something we'd do in-house.
We're super excited to help new startups build data that were never possible before with the extreme high cost of data collection :D
I am super interested in making solutions to help startups exchange data. Especially for niche data. So if you are interested I'd love to get in touch.