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AI Use Cases

A collection of over 250 uses for artificial intelligence

A continually updated list exploring how different types of AI are used across various industries and AI disciplines,including generative AI use cases, banking AI use cases, AI use cases in healthcare, AI use cases in government, AI use cases in insurance, and more

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Drone inspection of power lines

Introduction

The energy sector has been one of the most active in the fight against climate change and has been making efforts to achieve the targets on emissions and sustainable practices. But as it has been mentioned before, there are still a number of issues that have to be solved. For instance, the energy transition which is necessary in order to achieve the climate goals has its challenges. The use of renewable energy sources including solar, wind, and hydro power is crucial but comes with the challenge of managing the grid and transmission of energy. Also, the energy sector has to develop approaches that will allow it to accommodate the uncertainty of renewable resources and the need for base-load power from the conventional sources of power including coal and natural gas.

Challenges

There are however some challenges that affect the application of drone technology in power line inspections. The first challenge is how to deal with large amount of data that is collected by drones. Drones are capable of capturing as much as 500 gigabytes of data in a single flight and reviewing all this data by hand is a tedious and a prone to error process. The second challenge is the expense of drone operations; the expense goes beyond the actual drone but also covers the expense of the operator as well as the maintenance of the drone. A third concern is safety since drones can be dangerous if they are not flown correctly. Last but not the least, there are legal issues concerning the use of drones since the laws governing the use of drones in different places may be different and may be hard to follow.

AI Solutions

These challenges include the following. To these challenges, AI especially CV AI has solutions. For data analysis for instance CV AI is capable of efficiently and effectively processing and analyzing large amounts of image data acquired by drones, identifying potential problems for instance damaged equipment or vegetation intrusion. In the area of cost, AI can also minimize the number of personnel required for operation since drones can be set to fly certain patterns and identify anomalies on their own. Also, AI can enhance safety through improved drone control and avoidance algorithms. In relation to regulatory issues, AI can assist the operators to meet these requirements through geofencing of drones and set off, approach and landing distances from people and structures. Some of the companies that have developed such solutions include SkySpecs and PrecisionHawk.

Benefits

There are several advantages of using CV AI in drone inspections. First, it improves safety as it minimises the exposure of personnel to physically inspect power lines particularly in dangerous conditions. Second, it is efficient as drones can reach more areas and assimilate more information than human inspectors within a given time frame. Third, it enhances the precision since AI algorithms can identify problems that may not be easily noticed by a human eye. Fourth, it has the potential of being cost effective since it reduces the costs that would be needed to employ workers and also helps in the detection of potential problems before they become costly maintenance issues or even cause power black out.

Return on Investment

It is possible to realize a high ROI when implementing CV AI in drone inspections. For example, a study by PwC has revealed that the application of drones in the utility sector can reduce costs by $1.1 billion on an annual basis only in the United States. These costs are cut down because of the reduction in labor, enhanced efficiency and minimizing the number of power black out. Also, the enhancement in safety can also help in cutting down on insurance costs. The ROI will also differ based on the particular needs of each utility but in almost every situation, the advantages that come with CV AI in drone inspections can be a good return on investment.

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