Drone Completes One of Longest Inspection Flights in Its Class

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More than $38 billion is spent annually monitoring oil and gas pipelines using less efficient means, which often identify problems only long after they’ve occurred. Inspection by drones can offer a better solution.

A VTOL drone has successfully completed an unmanned data collection flight of 100km (62.3 miles), one of the longest journeys in its class. The flight was conducted by SkyX Systems Corporation, a Canadian aerial data analysis firm. The SkyOne Unmanned Aerial System, a VTOL drone, conducted the flight in Mexico on an autonomous data mission over more than 100 kilometres of gas pipeline. The robotic flight was programmed and monitored remotely from the company’s mission control, with a support crew of engineers on the ground in Mexico.

Using high-resolution imagery, they identified more than 200 potentially significant anomalies along the remote pipeline, ranging from unauthorized buildings and cultivation, through to a fissure possibly caused by seismic activity, according to dronelife.com. The drone mission inpointed precise coordinates for rapid investigation and remediation.

According to the firm, the flights mark a milestone for several reasons:

A 100+ kilometre flight gathered data in a little more than an hour that would have taken a person well over a week. Furthermore, the mission positions SkyX as the leading solution for cost-effective monitoring of oil and gas pipelines and other long-range infrastructure.

The SkyX System VTOL aircraft takes off like a helicopter but flies like a plane. The SkyCenter control room (which allows for real-time and secure mission monitoring from remote locations), and the company’s proprietary SkyBoxes, allow SkyOne to recharge and continue long-range missions without having to “Return to Home” (a factor that limits nearly every other drone).