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UPRR developing 'Autonomous drones' for bridge inspections


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#1 CNJRoss

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Posted 07 December 2017 - 10:13 AM

UPRR Inside Track,  12/5/17:

 

How America's Top Railroad Learns to Fly

 

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Autonomous drones are tested on the railroad bridge adjacent to the Benicia-Martinez Bridge in California.

 

 

We've all seen them – those miniature helicopters flying over back yards, ball parks and playgrounds. For most people, drones are little more than a high-tech toy waiting to be unwrapped under the Christmas tree.

 

But for American industry, drones are tools for doing jobs that weren't possible without a team of people or an actual helicopter. Railroads have been using drone technology for rail structure inspections since 2014, placing cameras where men used to hang from 800-foot-long metal bridges or 600-foot-high radio towers.

 

Like all new technology, railroads quickly discovered drones' limitations. Large steel structures can sometimes break the signal between the drone, the operator and the orbiting GPS satellite that makes everything work in harmony.

 

 

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Today, Union Pacific plays a leading role in advancing drone technology. For example, Adelman found a team that ultimately developed Perspective Navigation Technology (PNT), which enables the railroad to fly drones in places without GPS coverage, such as within or under that large metal bridge or in the depths of long culverts.

 

PNT is the first step toward a technology that will change the very nature of how Union Pacific inspects its infrastructure. It will enable autonomous drones – drones that literally fly themselves.

 

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"Any day somebody doesn't have to put on fall protection is a good day," he said. "I don't know what the future's going to look like, but I do know it will be safer with drones."

 

 

More here.






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