Customer:

Queensland water infrastructure provider.

Problem:

Water storage infrastructure requires regular ongoing maintenance to meet compliance, water security, and public health requirements. Inspections of these assets include detecting rust and corroding materials, pest ingression, surrounding safety and security issues and more.

To conduct these tasks requires access to locked areas, inspection of hard to reach areas and working at height to correctly ascertain the maintenance requirements of each asset.

Location:

Various locations around Brisbane City Council area including Bardon, and Mt Gravatt reserve.

How we did it:

V-TOL Hornet

V-TOL Aerospace used our Hornet multirotor along with Optical, Thermal and LiDAR payloads to safely, effectively and efficiently capture maintenance data without requiring physical access to the sites or placing personnel at risk by climbing water infrastructure. This airframe enabled V-TOL to launch from outside the infrastructure compound, fly over locked gates and fences, and inspect the asset and surrounding infrastructure, from angles, and at speed, previously not attainable. Inspections around overhangs, above inaccessible roofs, and behind safety railings were possible using the hornet multirotor, multi payload platform.

Optical

Using high resolution optical cameras, detailed inspections of assets can be conducted. This allowed the detection of rust spots on roofing sheets, brackets, braces, railings, bolts and more. It also enabled the opportunity to verify compliance with construction and maintenance standards, correct signage as well as providing a training aid for maintenance personnel.

Thermal

Thermal imagery enables early detection of rust and corrosion as well as potential electrical and solar panel faults, and standing water. The radiometric data allows detection of temperature variations down to 0.1 degree resolution, providing reliable early warnings, enabling costs saving preventative maintenance.

LiDAR

Using the Hovermap© payload in partnership with CSIRO and Data61, V-TOL Aerospace was able to demonstrate the ability to rapidly capture the asset and surrounds. This Data provides an interactive 3D reconstruction enabling the asset operator to track changes in tree clearances, land slippages, and asset placement, as well as providing future planner’s topography and land use details, and enabling an immersive offsite training environment.

 

Other applications/uses

This cutting edge technology has other uses for asset and infrastructure inspections such as: