Automatic charging and cruising, "drones" subvert drones

China Venture Network (https://www.chinaventure.com.cn)

Report: Drones have passed the era of hardware and people. Data and models are the future.

CAAC Ivey’s “Dragon’s Nest” system model

"Look at the iron tower over there."

On the highway of the South Sixth Ring Road in Beijing, the staff of CAAC Ivey reminded China Investment Network that through the car window, you can see several power towers standing beside the highway. One of them is unique, "sitting" in the center of the tower. A hexagonal metal box that looks like a mechanical nest. If no one warned it, most people would probably miss this mysterious black box.

"Thank you all for braving the scorching heat to attend the event today. It just allows everyone to experience the hard work of the power inspection personnel." Cao Fei held the microphone and expressed his apology with a joke. The sauna day in Beijing in July made Cao Fei As sweaty as anyone present.

The participants wiped their sweat while staring at the black box on the tower not far away. That is today’s protagonist—Dronest, a fully autonomous drone intelligent inspection system. Today, what this hexagonal box hatches may be a new future for drones.

From helicopters to drones

People kept signing on the dark blue movable backboard, and many of them were the person in charge of the power system. Cao Fei, the founder of CAAC Ivey, was also a "power man".

In 2001, Cao Fei, who graduated from university, joined the State Grid Corporation of China. The main job of this newcomer was to inspect the power network lines, that is, to use manpower to check the damage of power lines and towers. At that time, the inspection staff would sit in their cars and use telescopes to observe wires and towers. Once they encountered basins or high mountains, the vehicles would be unusable, and the inspectors would have to "go to the mountains and countryside." Due to environmental constraints, sometimes one inspector cannot inspect two towers in one day.

In 2005, Cao Fei, who had studied abroad for two years, returned to China and returned to the power system, bringing with him the aerial power inspection system that was popular abroad at the time. In the past, inspections were carried out by cars on the ground, but now helicopters are used to carry staff to observe the condition of power lines in the air. After becoming an "air force" without the constraints of the surface, the inspection efficiency has been greatly improved. Of course, there are pros and cons. Helicopters are cool and efficient, but equally high are the costs.

Cao Fei, who has always been very interested in drones, saw new opportunities for power inspections on drones that were still called "model aircraft" at the time.

In 2009, Cao Fei founded Airwing to introduce drones into the power system and transition power inspection from helicopters to the drone era.

From drone to “drone”

The whistling sound of wind came from the speakers, and the LCD TV signal used as a monitor in the venue switched to the black "Dragon's Nest". After a slight sound of the metal hatch opening, and amid the unique hum of the propellers, Zhongfei Ivey's white autonomous cruise drone soared from its "nest" like a giant bird.

After circling in the air, the drone first descended to the left shoulder of the tower to take suspended shots. After completing the shots at several fixed points, it rose into the air again, crossed the power tower, and descended on the right to complete the same shooting action.

"This is called 'crossing the tower' in our industry. It is a relatively difficult operation. The pilot needs to practice for a long time." Cao Fei introduced to everyone. He smiled and revealed that his skills in controlling drones are not very good. Get up and down with those professional "flying hands". The drone that flew out of the Dragon's Nest completed its flight completely in accordance with the programming without human control.

"Dragon's Nest" and drones on power towers

UAVs have been used for power inspections since 2009. Compared with previous helicopter inspections, the efficiency of UAVs has been improved by orders of magnitude. Previously, manual inspections could only inspect two power towers a day, but with drones, two inspectors can inspect up to more than 20 power towers a day.

Although efficiency has improved, Cao Fei is still not satisfied, because even with drones, the company still needs to recruit a large number of pilots to control drones to complete a large number of orders. Is it possible to let drones conduct inspections on their own and people just need to remotely monitor them?

The answer is possible. Since drones have GPS, infrared sensors and computing chips, the flight of drones can be controlled by software through programming. One of the pain points of "unmanned" drones is the space flight coordinates. positioning, and another issue is battery life. The former question is relatively simple. CAAC Ivey has carefully collected the 3D data of each power tower during many years of drone inspections. With this data, the team can use software to let the drone reach the tower on its own. The surrounding coordinate points that need to be photographed.

Cao Fei found the answer to the problem of drone battery life from a simple sweeping robot - the sweeping robot has a charging stand, and the drone can also have a "charging nest". The drone can set its own patrol schedule based on the power. Once the battery power is insufficient, the drone can return to the "Dragon's Nest" to recharge, which perfectly solves the battery life problem. "Dragon's Nest" itself has two ways of discharging electricity: photovoltaic and induction. The former uses six solar charging panels on the flanks of "Dragon's Nest"; the latter uses sensors to obtain power directly from the tower lines.

At the same time, the "Dragon's Nest" has IP67 waterproof and strong windproof performance, allowing the drone to survive dangerous weather and environments in the "nest" safely.

"Drones" subvert drones

On a large-size LCD TV, after the photo of the power tower is enlarged several times, the screws at the joint and the threads of the lines can still be clearly seen. The 20-megapixel CCD sensor of the drone's camera ensures the clarity of the image. . "The ground wire is difficult to check. Usually only a small head will be exposed when there is a lightning strike." Cao Fei explained while looking at the image on the screen.

The drone was hovering in the air, and Cao Fei took out a mobile phone and asked everyone to circulate it. What was displayed on the mobile phone was the real-time picture captured by the drone's camera. In order to ensure real-time data return, the "Dragon Nest" system is connected to the optical fiber of the power line and uses optical fiber for high-speed data return, solving the communication problem in an amazing way.

Cao Fei (middle), founder of CAAC Ivey, communicates with guests

UAVs made of "honeycomb composite materials" can have a range of up to 5 kilometers. In Cao Fei's vision, by setting up several "Dragon Nest" systems on power towers based on a standard of about 5 kilometers, autonomous intelligent cruising of drones can be realized. Staff can monitor the relevant processes in the office without having to Back to the scene. "One aircraft has multiple nests. Once the inspection route is determined, the drone can automatically complete the task." Cao Fei said.

Although it has independently developed very "hard" technologies and equipment such as drones and "Dragon Nest", Cao Fei does not think that CAAC Ivey is a drone hardware or drone service company, "To be precise, , we are a drone data operation company." Cao Fei said. In many years of cooperation with the State Grid, the data brought back by drones on each mission is measured in terabytes. From the perspective of current artificial intelligence, this data is oil and gold.

Through cooperation with technology giants such as Microsoft, CAAC Ivey began to use machine learning technology to "refining" the large amount of power inspection data accumulated by the company over the years. Big data, which is continuously analyzed by algorithms and models, will "speak" in the future and provide people with more valuable predictions. "Sending drones to check circuits is a thing of the past. What we need to do is to remind the power company which lines may have problems on which day and give early warning." Cao Fei said that this set of data from CAAC Ivey The operation platform is already in the trial operation stage.

In Cao Fei's vision, it is not limited to the power system. The "Dragon's Nest" can also be used for environmental protection, river monitoring and other purposes. In other words, as long as there is a power supply, the Dragon's Nest system can be built at a cost of and efficiency are lower than satellite remote sensing or field monitoring by staff.

In the 1990s, Motorola launched the Iridium project to launch 77 satellite communication systems in space capable of covering the entire world. If the size of the map is reduced by several orders of magnitude, "Dragon's Nest" can actually be regarded as the "Iridium" system on the ground. UAVs controlled by programs can use the power of the system to achieve non-simple monitoring and control. Really "Eyes in the Sky". And all this will no longer require the participation of "flying hands".

When asked how many partners the "Dragon Nest" system would seek to promote in the future, Cao Fei, who was watching the drone's slow "homing", said: "The more, the better."

(Editor: Ran Fangfang)

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