Aerial Drone Surveys

What sectors do we cover

The four main business sectors that we provide drone surveys in includes the energy sector comprised of oil & gas, wind energy and hydro electric dams. In the Infrastructure sector our drone surveys can be used for everything from building structural inspection to roofing, viaducts, bridges and even 3D modelling and topographical surveys. In the utilities sector, our drone surveys are helping to maintain and inspect powerlines, electrical towers, cooling towers and so much more to help homes stay connected. And in the transportation sector, everything from motorway bridges to railway lines and ventilation shafts in tunnels are all areas that we can provide aerial inspections on with minimal to no shut down of roads or rail links.

What is an aerial drone survey?

Drone surveys are a faster, more detailed and safer way of conducting close up visual inspection of key assets and infrastructure which would normally be conducted by a team of ‘at height’ specialists using rope access, scaffolding and other ‘at height’ methods to reach inspection points.

Drones are unmanned quad blade aerial vehicle that we can fit with video, photography and thermal imaging cameras. They allow us to conduct up close visual inspections of structures, areas of interest and other objects, capturing visual data in the form of photos, video and scans that are collected and processed using powerful cloud based software to produce detailed inspection reports.

Drone surveys can be conducted in the exact same weather conditions that a normal inspection team operate in and can comparatively cover a huge area in a short space of time. At Balmore, we operate a fleet of drones that are specialised for different applications. For example, we operate a ‘confined spaces drone‘ equipped with a protective cage that allows it to access high risk confined spaces that are too small for a human to access. The protective cage allows to the drone to operate in tight locations.

We also operate drones equipped with vision sensor technology that do not rely on GPS signals. This makes it invaluable when operating in areas with an unstable GPS signal such as the metal structures surrounding an oil platform.

The advantages of using drone surveys

The advantages of using drone surveys for your visual inspection needs includes everything from the quality of the inspection data to the cost savings and the safety benefits it brings as human life is not put in harms way.

Scaffolding required to allow an inspection crew to perform a visual inspection is an expensive and time consuming process. It can take days to erect and deconstruct scaffolding.  Simply for a visual inspection to be conducted.  It can result of normal operations being disrupted or even put on hold and puts human life at risk while working at height.

Using aerial drone surveys instead of human inspection crews will:

• Reduce risk to life
• Offer significant cost savings
• Lower your insurance premiums
• Reduce operational downtime and disruption
• Produce more accurate and detailed inspection reports
• Be faster

A drone survey can take thousands of images from multiple vantage points. And all from distances and angles that are simply not possible with other current methods. These images can be GPS tagged so that future scheduled drone inspection work can follow the exact same flight path to take overlapping photos from the exact same GPS co-ordinates and angles as before. This gives your business direct visual comparison inspection data to monitor developing issues on points of interest. This is an invaluable service that has, for example, saved wind farms hundreds of thousands of pounds in maintenance costs and operational downtime as visual drone surveys have highlighted developing issues and monitored them as part of a scheduled inspection contract that allows repairs to be conducted when it best suits the company.

Scheduled and Reactive Drone Surveys

We can provide both scheduled drone survey work and reactive inspections.  For businesses that require regular reviews and inspections of their company assets, regular drone inspections allow you to keep abreast of any developing issues, allowing you to plan accordingly and work any operational downtime more efficiently.

Storm damage can require reactive drone inspections to be conducted on a commercial or industrial roofing system to make sure that there is no hidden damage.  Thermal imaging drone surveys can see things that the human eye simply can’t and we can highlight problems with your roof or building structure, allowing you to get them repaired before they become serious issues.

To find out more about our drone survey work, please contact us today.  Our team will be more than happy to answer any and all questions you may have about our aerial drone survey services.