Unlike some of the latest consumer drones, which fly almost autonomously, Asio X requires mainly manual control, as well as in some very merciless locations, as Astorino notes: “It is dark, the air flow can quickly change in limited space, and the management of the flight path over flowing water in a limited pipe is a challenge.” As a result, he leaves the flight to experts: “Our main operator, captain of Zach, is able to fly through very difficult environments.”
To say, the control process itself is plain. “The antenna is lowered to the manhole to ensure the signal strength from the drone controller to the drone,” says Astorino Wired. “The operator will fly a drone from one hatch to another, recording the video through this flight path.” At about 20 minutes of the life of the ASIO X battery, it can document about 1000 feet of the pipe in one flight, capturing not only video, but also lidar and infrared scans, as well as gas readings that pass through part of the sewage system.
In the ancient system, video data would be analyzed in the field, and the camera operator records flaws when moving through the pipes. Now the data condemned on drones are sent to contractors in Severai, who run them through algorithms assisted by AI to automatically identify defects. Astorino tells me that this is variable, saving his team a huge amount of time and money.
“We conducted months of tests against the coded video in the field of various contractors against Sewerai with the same film, and every time Sewerai was distinguished by what was able to find and encode correctly.” Earlier, checking the sewage pipe section may take months, but Severai has an agreement on sending the data analysis back to the county within 10 days; Astorino says that he usually does it within 24 hours.
The team was so impressed with the software package that even in areas where the drone cannot leave and more established control methods are required – for example, low pipe diameter – the resulting data is now sent for analysis and are not coded in the field. Ancient data can be quickly reviewed and re -analyzed, collecting disadvantages that the original contractors could miss at that time. This means that you can do repair work where they are most needed, preventing the conditions that can lead to catastrophic and high-priced incidents, such as the 2016 sink.
The Macomb Ferry is a pioneer in this field. This is the first unit in Michigan, which uses this combination of drones and AI software for the underground infrastructure inspection and has won two awards in a state of his future thinking. But Vince Astorino tells me that he and his team are always looking for fresh ways of modernizing surgery. “It is difficult to eliminate great jumps in technology around this space, especially with the great race of artificial intelligence around us. We maintain our options.”