Week 12 - Drones & Maintenance
Week 12! We're almost out of the first quarter - 2018! The year is flying by and I hope you are enjoying this blog so far. If you have a topic you want me to cover or have some ideas for me - please don't hesitate to contact me! When I was in the Air Force, I was a Civil Engineer officer - one of our core competencies was infrastructure maintenance, similar to a county's Public Works Department. We were tasked with making sure critical pieces of infrastructure were maintained properly so we could generate air power anywhere in the world. This post combines my passion for innovative technology and my career as a Civil Engineer officer.
Managing an infrastructure operation is tough and definitely thankless! Sometimes it can be costly even though the maintenance itself isn't the biggest expense of all. When you're responsible for the preventative maintenance of utilities, roads, roof systems, etc. you're not just worried about major repairs to key systems, but the million and one little things that could go wrong and potentially stop operations/production if they do!
Factories, warehouses, oil refineries, generator plants, fuel farms, military infrastructure all have critical buildings or utilities that must be maintained to protect the security, safety, and running operations of their plant. For example, a hole in the fence, broken pipes, blown sockets, corrosion of pipelines, cracks in chimneys or roofs - all of these issues can potentially become critically important for an organization and cost a large sum of money to correct quickly. Small problems can pop up at anytime, but are rarely noticeable until they turn into a big problem - especially if the building is in the middle of nowhere, or if they're on a roof.
Utility outages and infrastructure shutdowns are detrimental to accomplishing the organization's objective. For example, Volvo cannot continue to manufacture vehicles if they need to shut down operations to replace the roof. Google's servers cannot continue to run in a climate controlled building if the facilities' HVAC system needs to be worked on routinely. Typically, problematic areas include infrastructure that is not within the ease of access of the maintenance teams - such as transformers outside, chillers on a roof, or buildings that may be a significant distance away. I remember at Holloman AFB, we had buildings on base that were 25-30 miles away from our shops. That's nearly half a day to check on one or two buildings! Infrastructure teams may not be giving outdoor systems the due diligence they need, leaving the organization vulnerable.
An excellent solution to prevent these scenarios is to adopt and deploy autonomous drones (Like you saw at the Olympics in South Korea this year!). They can fly on their own on a pre-identified route without the need for an operator. This aerial imaging fleet can produce photographs of hard-to-get-to locations and can observe everything going on in a large outdoor facility. Imagine, within that fleet of drones, you had a couple that were equipped with infrared or thermal cameras so not only can you get a real-time capture of the infrastructure, but you'll know how systems are performing by conducting non-destructive investigations with that thermal camera.
This fleet will be able to capture the most recent status of critical infrastructure and notify teams of maintenance personnel of any issues so they can take action before the problem becomes too large to correct quickly and inexpensively. These cameras can detect leaks in piping systems, roof anomalies, and fence penetrations - all critical pieces of infrastructure that can be programmed into the route of a drone fleet. There are other ways of identifying these problems - like when a leak turns into a flood, or an intruder gets through a hole in the fence, or roofs begin to leak. The maintenance personnel can send out ground teams to inspect all potential problems that exist, but that would require having patrols continually on site which is extremely costly and sometimes impractical for many organizations. Also, those teams would not be able to see the 300-ft Above Ground Level view in real time with infrared or thermal imagery.
Autonomous technology can help save an organization money in other areas as well. A large portion of security breaches are false alarms, but due to strict regulations - all alarms must be verified and deemed safe prior to resuming operations. An autonomous drone that regularly flies over the perimeter of a facility can respond to alarms as soon as it's noticed, and be able to provide a live feed to the security organization to determine if it is a false alarm or the "real deal." This would save a significant amount of time in man-hours and travel for the inspection teams. Also, if a threat were to occur - the drone would be able to identify the issue faster in order to provide key information to the quick reaction force while they're en route to eliminate the threat.
Outside of safety, security, and maintenance tasks - autonomous drones can help identify compliance with environmental regulations. Environmental standards have become critical in an organization's success. Thermal imagery, air quality sniffers, and other pieces of technology can provide real-time compliance verification of your infrastructure and continually monitor the environment.
(RPIC: Sal Randazzo, 350-ft AGL, Reg #: FA3AARWW43)
This is a roof inspection of a membrane roof system at the Berkeley County Administration facility. This low-sloped roof does not have many penetrations and performs as designed.
(RPIC: Workswell)
This is an example of how thermal imagery can help a maintenance team identify rapid heat loss on a low-sloped roof. You can see around the mechanical curbs - there is drastic heat being expelled from the vents which can be detrimental to a membrane roof system. Membrane roofs are designed to expand and contract with the elements - if it's cold outside it will contract, but if you have constant heat being applied to specific areas (like at these vents) they will expand. Where that expansion and contraction meet - that's where you'll have a potential leak.
I hope you enjoyed this post! I'm constantly seeking feedback - leave a comment below or send me a message letting me know what you think, how I can make this better, or if there's a topic you want me to cover!
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About Sal Randazzo:
Sal is a defense contractor, entrepreneur, and fitness enthusiast. His Blog is designed to share his life with his followers. His YouTube channel & Blog is a gallery of his work and personal life. Enjoy!
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