Learnings

Outcomes

Year 2022/2023

• The system installation has been completed and is now fully functional.
• Both technical and procedural improvements have been identified and implemented.
• A workshop with the CAA, who will eventually need to approve the BVLOS OSC, has been held after extensive coordination in order to accommodate the availabilities of key members on all sides.

Recommendations for further work

Year 2022/2023

• Integration of other non-imagery type sensors to the UAV could be explored post project to maximise its potential as a sensor-carrying platform.
• A cyber defence strategy could be explored post project to increase confidence in integrating UAV technologies to critical infrastructures.

Lessons Learnt

Year 2022/2023

• More consideration should be paid to the access to DCI to account for adverse weather conditions and to the coordination with other contractors on site.
• Though many drone related products are marketed as easy to install and use, some are even marketed as ‘plug & play’, this is not the case for the transmission substation environment. The transmission substation environment is complex. There are many interconnected high voltage assets that demand minimum safety clearances to be kept. Attentions must be paid to careful planning, hardware positioning and stakeholder coordination when applying such technologies in the transmission substation environment.
• It is more difficult than originally thought for the AI model to identify the foreground target assets from the background assets that are not of interest. This is because electrical assets in a substation are interconnected and are of similar colours. This is why further VLOS flights in a live substation would be beneficial to the project, as it would help to reduce the bias in the AI model with increased numbers of correct samples.

Dissemination

Year 2022/2023

• This project was disseminated during the European Energy Innovation Forum held in Rome, Italy on 6 Oct. 2022.
• A workshop with the CAA was held on 29 Mar. 2023 to discuss the project and to gather feedback from the CAA for this project. The feedback received was positive and the CAA expressed interests in further development of the project.
• This project is planned to be disseminated at Utility Week Live 2023 in Birmingham between the 16^th and 17^th of May 2023