Drones are starting to resonate within mainstream industries on a much wider scale as integration between the many segments of the drone ecosystem continue to mature. Enterprises across many verticals are benefiting from tangible improvements to their business’ bottom line. One such industry that is capitalizing on the value of automated analytics is the Utility sector.

Utility providers must keep a firm grip on their asset management, ensure regulatory compliance, and quickly respond to identified issues. Drones are helping Utility providers inspect and collect high volumes of data on critical structures in a shorter timescale and in a much more cost-effective manner, all while reducing the need for personnel to put themselves in dangerous settings in order to perform routine inspections. However, collecting the data is only the first step.

Without intelligent AI based analytics, the data will never reach its full potential and capitalize on the industry’s latest tool. All too often, corporations do not have the time and resources to manually filter through vast quantities of deliverables to obtain actionable data. Fortunately, with empowering AI analytics, the value of the data collected is significantly enhanced based on the newly derived business decisions that can be leveraged by the client from that data.

Managing and analyzing power line data is especially challenging since sections can span tens of miles and generate several thousand images. Existing methods used to manage, analyze, and share this data are incredibly laborious. Operators must spend days manually compiling raw unstructured data, inspecting libraries of images to find issues, and then layer that information onto a map, all through a number of disparate platforms & software applications. This results in increased project time and costs, which more often than not, means the data is not fully utilized, leaving the client void of data visibility in an industry where time is of utmost importance.

Enter Optelos’ Drone Work Advisor™ software platform. Optelos provides a unified solution to help Utility companies solve these data challenges in a number of intuitive and time saving ways by:

 

  1. Allowing immediate visibility to client project data: Optelos extracts all image metadata and automatically places geo-located imagery onto a map in the form of directional arrow markers. These markers can be color-coded through user or automated AI analytics to display filterable, identified issues. Unlimited clients and stakeholders can interact with this, enabling analysis to help pinpoint issues and make more intelligent, informed decisions.

  2. Unprecedented access to deliverables: Operators can visualize highly accurate orthomosaic and 3D point cloud models directly from the uploaded, processed data sets. For example, orthomosaics of the entire utility grid can be overlaid on top of a standard map. Differently dated orthomosaics can then be compared alongside each other to allow before/after change detection of the assets and the surrounding environment. Additionally, any type of orthomosaics (i.e. RGB, NDVI or DEM) can be blended together to empower Utility operators to visually see changes in encroaching vegetation or monitor infrastructure degradation. A full suite of tools allows stakeholders or drone service providers to create measurements to further enhance maintenance schedules, all from a single unified portal.

  3. AI Analytics: Instead of manually inspecting thousands of images, Optelos’ patent pending VisualOptiq™ AI Analytic and Machine Learning technology releases the untapped value of raw captured data that would otherwise be neglected. The innovative AI engine automatically processes the entire dataset using customer-defined specific classifiers to quickly identify and classify issues. The system will then display geo-located filtered imagery of interest. Optelos VisualOptiq™ AI technology can provide actionable answers up to 60% faster than traditional methods. The result is drastically reduced downtime of defective equipment and more efficient and intelligent usage of available information.

 

Utilities companies require a fine balance of rapid response with routine inspection to enable proactive and preventative measures. With Optelos’ functionality, the ability to have drone data visualized, analyzed and shared in a simple yet insightful manner ensures that utility operators can take advantage of the full arsenal of newly available deliverables.

The bottom line is that customers do not care about data; what they want is actionable answers that have a profound effect on profit. Industry professionals need a versatile platform that encompasses leading AI capabilities, tailored for any business goals in any field. Optelos is helping customers capitalize on the value of their data to achieve those exact goals.