A Business Case for UAVs

摘要

Arizona Public Service unmanned aerial vehicles save money, improve reliability and enhance safety. Over the past five to seven years, bulk electric system companies outside of the U.S. have increased their use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in pursuit of increasing safety, improving efficiency and reducing cost. By using aerial robots, crews not only can perform the work they do safer and quicker, but the onboard data-capture payloads allow for additional benefits long after the initial inspection effort is complete. Instead of deploying a bucket truck or climbing a pole, crews are able to us UAVs to quickly put eyes on assets to make decisions on how to proceed. In addition, real-time images and video can be relayed to utility operation centers for additional perspectives or concurrence on a plan of action. Data can then be stored and used for comparison analysis against previous or future images, and also be shared with planning and preventative maintenance groups.