How do you maintain energy infrastructure that reaches across a continent? GE thinks a fleet of flying robots—plus the cloud—can help.
Imagine a situation in which a power line goes down in rural Mississippi. You see a drone fly onto the scene, snap a photo, and transmit that data to a utility worker in another location.
Pretty cool, right? The sudden emergence of the unmanned aerial vehicle—that is, drone—has given rise to a raft of alluring applications: military missions, farm surveillance, even package delivery (we’re looking at you, Amazon). But consider the millions of miles of power lines strung across the globe—infrastructure on which we heavily rely to support our Information Age. Wouldn’t it be wonderful and cost-efficient to use flying robots to help maintain it?