Terra Drone Optimizes Long-Distance Power Line inspection

Terra Drone conducted a long-distance power line inspection for EGAT (Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand) and a power energy distributor in Poland and completed 12km power line mapping in a day. The purpose of the mission was to research the distance between power lines and the surrounding vegetation and to create tree-trimming report. As a result, we provided them with high-quality images of power line with about 1 cm GSD and a detailed tree-trimming report.

The mission was done with a fixed wing RTK drone equipped with a Sony RX1R II（full-frame 42-Mpix camera.）Several flights with a maximum flight time of 60 minutes per flight have completed a power line inspection with a distance of 50km in total. Our in-house 3D power line-recognition algorithm processes the data acquired from the flights, which is otherwise relatively more difficult to achieve with normal images, and measures the distance of obstacles to the power lines. 

Through this method, we acquired 3D mapping data and a detailed report, which allow infrastructure inspection and management to be much more accurate compared to the conventional visual inspection done by helicopter.

Our company will continue to helping infrastructure owners manage power lines and vegetation with our user-friendly solutions and our own in-house processing software.

Flight plan

3D power line map generated by algorithm (1)

3D power line map generated by algorithm (2)

Distance analysis between vegetation and power lines (1)

Distance analysis between vegetation and power lines (2)

power line inspection report