Commercial Drone operators can use the PROWL system for observing infrastructure such as power lines, pipelines, tracks and fences – whilst the drone is observing the infrastructure, you can feel more confident that it will not encounter another hazard! Point cameras off centre and continue to fly safely. Maximise airtime and be assured they remain within the fly zone, with the ability to have an automated safe return to base operations (e.g. low fuel/charge, loss of control signal).
When performing a survey or search, there are two things that you need to be concerned about – number one; is the drone doing it’s job? Is the camera / sensor looking at the right place? Then number two; is the drone safe?
Does this require a pilot and an observer? Can the pilot focus on two things at the same time? If you send the drone off to follow a pre-programmed path, can you be sure that it is achieving the two main aims of observing the environment and infrastructure at the same time? With the PROWL system, the concerns about collision with objects in the real world can be reduced – leaving the drone to focus on it’s primary task.
What’s more is that with the crowd-sourced database, if you find an object that is not already on the PROWL database (such as a large tree or a tall antenna with support wires), you can add the object yourself to PROWL. This is then immediately available to both you and any other drone you operate, plus available to any other user of the system.
Surveying high voltage power lines? Add the power lines themselves into the PROWL database, and your drone will keep it’s distance, plus your entry to the PROWL system can assist in other drones being aware of the hazard, to avoid flying into your infrastructure.