News
The use of drone technology in outage management and in the inspection and maintenance of power transmission lines or towers requires a comprehensive solution, typically driven by a holistic technology approach. This approach is known as Intelligent Asset Performance Management. It thus combines new asset management strategies, such as using innovative technology to enable efficient outage management, cheaper, safer, and faster inspection and maintenance methods, with optimized prediction of potential infrastructure failures. It comprises three key components essential for an end-to-end drone-based transmission line inspection.
Speak with one of our specialists and discover how Pix Force can transform your business
1. Asset performance management
Asset management is a complex business field in which utilities often struggle to harvest data and transform it into operational insights. Asset Performance Management (APM) corresponds to an emerging field of technologies and strategies, which promises to cut costs and increase grid stability. As more and more devices, components, and units are connected to the Internet of Things (IoT), APM captures and analyzes component data to transform information into actionable insights. For utilities, this means gathering, processing, analyzing, and eventually acting proactively on grid component health information to improve operations.
2. Big data and artificial intelligence solutions
The ability to process, store, and analyze large amounts of data from a wide variety of information sources is critical for the implementation of asset performance management. Unlocking efficient data collection and analysis across multiple data sources requires a Big Data platform with artificial intelligence analysis capabilities. In short, this means a solution capable of handling voluminous and complex datasets, quickly recognizing thousands of potential objects and errors through the use of cloud architecture automatically (cloud solutions).
3. Technology integration: communication, sensor and drone
Although sensor technology is being deployed at an increasing rate in utility infrastructure, many components lack the sensors or equipment needed to allow remote monitoring of power grid assets. This complete sensing process does not have an attractive ROI, since 24/7 monitoring does not always bring effective gains. Thus, periodic inspections with data analysis dilute the monitoring investment across multiple assets, bringing the investment to a promising level.
Pix Grid: the complete solution for inspection and monitoring of transmission towers
Pix Grid is a cutting-edge technology solution for optimizing power infrastructure operations. It features software optimized with artificial intelligence, smart sensors, autonomous flight, and different types of drones for various inspection and maintenance purposes from a web operations center. In addition, it also features five critical main components to leverage the opportunities inherent in power line inspections:
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) – Drones
The current inspection method relies on manned helicopter expeditions and is still quite manual, often carried out annually. The use of drones makes the work more routine and is considerably more cost-effective for companies. Pix Grid has a variety of different aerial vehicles for various types of operations, from a simple easement strip control to thermographic inspections of long sections of transmission lines.
Smart Sensors
Sensors are the backbone of the Internet of Things (IoT), being the hardware that monitors asset health, as it is what makes all measurements and data collection. Pix Grid raises the bar for market sensors by associating them with the use of artificial intelligence, with processing at the edge, the data is optimized, ensuring that what really matters will be stored.
Drone Operators and Operations Manuals
The operation of drones is conducted responsibly and follows a list of requirements to ensure safe practice. The Pix Grid includes the necessary competence and flight permissions to implement drone operations, including operations manuals approved by the Civil Aviation Authority of Brazil, flight approvals, and certified pilots.
Artificial Intelligence
The Pix Grid relies on a cutting-edge intelligent system capable of processing, storing, and analyzing images through the power of artificial intelligence (AI). All data acquired in the field is processed by computer vision algorithms, indicating anomalies and their positioning, without human interference. The system offers precise data with higher frequency, allowing its operators to detect maintenance needs on towers or transmission lines, as well as reduce investments and costs related to outages.
Transmission Line Inspection with Pix Grid
Combining drone flights with Computer Vision technology, Pix Grid is a solution geared towards monitoring and inspecting transmission towers, aiming to ensure this process is done more quickly, easily, and, above all, safely. Discover its main differentiators: • Fast and automatic report generation
• More precise and automatic identification of points of interest
• Reduction of costs and risks in the power line maintenance process
• Autonomous flights
In need of services related to monitoring energy transmission towers? Contact one of our salespeople and discover Pix Grid.
Fabio Caraça
Fábio Caraça is the Chief Growth Officer at Pix Force. He leads Pix Force's transformation into a scalable SaaS operation, combining strategic vision, culture, and high-impact execution.
