Over the coming months, Keen AI is working with National Grid and sees.ai developing a system which fully automates the corrosion assessment of electricity pylons.
National Grid targets the inspection of 3,650 steel lattice towers each year, capturing high definition still colour images of steelwork using helicopters and manual drones. These images are then processed manually by a pool of inspectors.
Automation of the data gathering and processing for these assessments offers significant benefits in terms of reduced manual effort (by highly qualified staff); avoidance of human error and subjectivity and increasing the quality and utility of the target data for asset management.
The objective of this project is to demonstrate these benefits by using a combination of autonomous drone data gathering with an automated data processing platform.
Automation to Increase Efficiency and Reliability of Visual Data
Keen AI’s Superconductor platform is already used for condition assessment and detection of defects on steelwork and overhead line fittings. A customised version will present the outcomes of the corrosion assessment models, showing the exact location and extent of corrosion on a 3D model of the tower. This makes it much easier for National Grid to explain to field engineers or contractors where to look for and fix corrosion on a pylon.
