AUTONOMOUS DRONES FOR INDUSTRIAL SITES

Words By: Drone Major

The push for digitalization in the global business age exacerbate with challenges familiar to manufacturers. Increased volatility in prices and availability of raw materials, the response to rapid swings between product shortages and capacity overages, staff fluctuations, concerns about intellectual property security, and the frequent movement or closure of industrial sites - all increases competitiveness and search for efficiencies.

Autonomous drones help companies respond to time, cost, and quality restrictions, while dynamically positioning them to respond to future technology- and data-driven demands.

ENSURING INDUSTRIAL SECURITY

Industrial sites run the risk of disruptive physical security intrusions. Whether operators are guarding equipment, products, or crops - autonomous drones allow them to dynamically and instantly respond to security threats across their sites. Use of piloted drones to better monitor equipment and operations is already commonplace. The aerial data gathered using these solutions can help operators identify security vulnerabilities and create smarter security practices. Yet each legacy drone still requires a paid human pilot and a security or operational analyst to review data collected. Autonomous drone solutions for industrial sites can monitor without human intervention and immediately alert teams to any security threat – tracking intruders until they are intercepted and adjusting altitude to maintain visual contact if the intruder leaves the site's perimeter.

ASSISTING WITH INVENTORY MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS

Legacy models of physical inventory management complicate decision-making and inventory tracking - especially in high-tech industries that must also juggle aging technology. As operators work to find ways to manage new data, adopt technology to modernize supply chains, monetize digitization, and find technology-savvy talent - autonomous drones can streamline both inventory management and day-to-day operations. For example, on construction sites drones can scan thousands of items at faster speeds than human teams, tracking where inventory such as wood, sand, and metal goes and how quickly it's used to meet demand. In industries such as forestry, mining, and infrastructure, autonomous drones can survey terrain, build elevation models, map sites, and effectively create digital models with new levels of accuracy. As autonomous drones monitor sites, they gather valuable data, allowing operators to better interpret cycle times, production runs, and quality yields. In the agriculture industry, autonomous drones collect information on large tracts of land, keep track of water use, monitor crop health, record heat signatures, provide soil analysis, sense moisture in the soil, and identify weeds – all while replacing expensive manned aerial surveillance.

BOLSTERING SITE AND EMPLOYEE SAFETY

So many causes falls, machine errors, electrical issues, poor maintenance, unsafe conditions, and more can lead to employee injuries on the job. These injuries threaten both employee health and the bottom line, especially with healthcare costs growing dramatically. Using autonomous drones to carry out safety inspections and respond to dangerous situations drastically lowers the risk to personnel. In fact, construction companies that utilize drones for safety inspections saw dangerous accidents decrease by up to 91%. Autonomous drones enable more frequent safety inspections and faster response to emergencies - without risking the lives of team members. Regular safety inspections also discover potential issues such as improperly installed equipment, exposed wires, and unlocked electrical panels, as well as provide in-depth data on site trends and vulnerabilities.

ENSURING ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY

Emerging and existing environmental regulations demand that industrial operators ensure that legacy equipment is in-line with new, more efficient operations. Operators are required to restrict the use of certain chemicals, reduce worker exposure to dangerous substances, and responsibly dispose of waste and by-products. Autonomous drones allow operators to monitor and respond to leaks, unsafe work conditions, and environmental incidents more quickly, greatly reducing the possible damage of equipment failure. Moreover, autonomous drones can monitor and collect data on potential vulnerabilities, enabling companies to act proactively – and, if necessary, respond to disaster scenes and dangerous spills in place of personnel with trigger-based missions.

IMPROVING ROUTINE MAINTENANCE

Despite the increasing complexity of today's industrial sites, operators are continually pushed by competitors and consumers alike to do more with less. This push for greater efficiency is at odds with rising maintenance costs, especially as legacy equipment ages and requires more work, and newer technology demands training and specialized skill sets. While operational expenses can be trimmed, doing so with maintenance can have expensive and sometimes dangerous consequences. Operators constantly seek a balance between budget and maintenance that extends the lifespan of their assets and ensures environmental safety with limited manpower. By embracing autonomous drone solutions, operators can better balance the scale on their sites, moving from a repairand-replace strategy to a predict-and-fix strategy. Autonomous drones can automatically alert about maintenance issues such as worn wires and cables to increase throughput and avoid safety and environmental failures.

HOW PERCEPTO'S DRONE-IN-BOX SOLUTION IS DIFFERENT

Drone use isn’t just about getting in the air, it’s about everything your drone solution allows you to do before and after that moment. With the comprehensive Percepto Solution, manufacturers can go above and beyond what’s possible with manned drone services. Percepto delivers robust data-driven insights enabling operators to identify key trends, and dynamically respond to on-site safety and security incidents. Our unique, fully autonomous components - the Sparrow Drone, Percepto Base and PerceptoCore - allow manufacturers to monitor, inspect, and maintain site safety, security, and day-to-day operations, around the clock, without human involvement. Percepto is the market leader of autonomous drone solutions for the industrial and defense markets. Our on-site autonomous drones change the way aerial data is collected and perceived, providing organizations the benefits of increased productivity, enhanced security and reduced operational costs.

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Contact us today to learn more about how our advanced drone solution can help your industrial operation save money and increase efficiency.