ALPS (drone)

2019: Announcement

In mid-October 2019, ALPS introduced a drone that is capable of autonomously checking the transmission infrastructure.

Traditionally, energy companies are used to test robots moving along power lines. Sometimes these robots are also equipped with lidar sensors. However, such robots have disadvantages: firstly, the robot can cause the cable to sag, and secondly, if the power line does not work, the robot can no longer move along it. Flying drones lack these drawbacks because they are completely independent of the power line. They are more autonomous and can provide video review from anywhere.

ALPS drone released, checking power lines completely automatically

Drone ALPS is equipped with very accurate and sensitive sensors, including lidar sensors, which provide drone orientation in space. ALPS also added a radio frequency positioning system with higher accuracy than civilian systems. GPS In addition, the demonstration drone is equipped with a camera that Sony 4K allows you to record small damage to the power transmission. In turn, video recording can be analyzed automatically using a specially developed algorithm AI provided by Toshiba Digital Solutions Corporation.

ALPS proposes to develop flight plans along the transmission line, after which the drone will be able to independently cope with local obstacles thanks to the collision prevention service and other automated functions that are increasingly included in drones. After an automatic take-off, the drone transmits real-time video and flight data to the command console, so that the human operator can take control at any time. At the same time, specialists can focus on the actual repair of power lines, and not on finding problems.^[1]

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