At a glance
The goal
Birds' nests in electricity pylons, damage to cables and crossbeams or weather-related erosion: electricity network operators in Germany have to inspect their infrastructure regularly. As a rule, this inspection is carried out by helicopter. A time-consuming and cost-intensive task, which is sometimes associated with considerable noise pollution for local residents. MITNETZ STROM tested whether a drone can perform these tasks faster, more efficiently and more automatically in a pilot project at the end of January 2020. MITNETZ STROM has almost 6,000 kilometers of high-voltage lines flown over by helicopter every year, an immense effort that is to be performed by drones in the future.
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The implementation
At the end of January 2020, FlyNex inspected an 18-kilometer section of a power line in the south of Leipzig by drone on behalf of the power grid operator MITNETZ STROM. The drone covered the distance at a flight altitude of between 25 and 50 meters and a speed of up to 30 kilometers per hour. The UAS flew safely over high-voltage pylons, residential and commercial areas, forest and field areas and past various localities. A total of almost 40 kilometers of power lines and about 70 power pylons could thus be captured fully automatically and digitally in about 45 minutes. The Leipzig-based software company FlyNex developed the aerial concept in a very short time and successfully coordinated it with the Saxony State Directorate. At the beginning of January 2020, the approval for the BVLOS aerial survey was already available.
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Our contribution
Drones are invisible to other airspace participants such as gliders, helicopters or powered aircraft; they do not transmit position data. To ensure that the drone's pilot always has an up-to-date picture of air traffic in the vicinity, Droniq equipped FlyNex's drone with a HOD4track, which sent its position to the UTM (UAS Traffic Management System) of DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH every second via Deutsche Telekom's mobile network. A web-based display showed the drone pilot this position as well as the position data of relevant air traffic in the vicinity.
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