Technologies 4.0. How drones change industry and save lives
In one filming day, a drone can scan more than 1,000 hectares. This allows you to calculate the amount of extracted minerals to the nearest cubic centimeter. For comparison, a similar amount of work using GNSS receivers or total stations, one specialist will not do in a month.
Drones solve the main task of the enterprise – to minimize the actions and stay of staff in the industrial zone during the continuous operation of equipment. This is important, because stopping the equipment for surveying work for even 30 minutes leads to production losses of the company, which can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The use of drones contributes to the creation of a safe environment in the workplace. After all, you can quickly gather the necessary information from hard-to-reach and dangerous places for professionals. The drone is working and the workers are safe at this time.
Flight trajectory
According to the Financial Times, the market for commercial drones will grow to $43 billion by 2025. The United States, Israel, the United Kingdom and China have been leading the industry for several years. The largest revenue in the market for drones is recorded in the military sphere, but the market for commercial helicopters is growing the fastest.
In Europe, the United States and Asia, drones are widely used in various fields, from construction and agriculture to ecology and medicine. For example, in the field of construction, a combination of drone data and special software allow you to create detailed 3D models of construction sites. And already on their basis to clearly calculate the amount of necessary materials and the progress of construction. In the field of ecology, drones help monitor air pollution, and in China they even fight smog.
In energy, drones are used to monitor the state of power grids. They can quickly detect their damage. With the help of a thermal imager installed on board, the drone detects overheating or defects in the insulators. This allows you to quickly respond and plan early service work, avoiding unforeseen emergencies. In addition, with the new approach, you can inspect the lines 3-5 times faster than the traditional method.
Drones open up significant opportunities in the oil and gas sector, from preliminary analysis of promising areas to geodetic surveys for the design and preparation of seismic exploration. They address a number of security issues that oil companies have traditionally spent a significant amount of resources on.
The real revolution is being carried out by drones in the mining industry. Their scope is endless: from monitoring the movement of equipment, control of embankment volumes to the study and mapping of mineral residues. In the latter case, based on data from the drone, a 3D model of ore or mineral reserves is built to the nearest centimeter. For comparison, after a while another flight is performed to obtain an updated 3D model. Special software allows you to compare previous and updated 3D models. This, in turn, will allow you to track changes in raw material stocks and control the productivity of mining operations.
Casey. Where do drones fly in Metinvest? The development of unmanned technologies at the enterprises of the Metinvest Group is carried out by the IT business partner of the Group – Metinvest Digital.
"We offer our customers a variety of comprehensive and competitive unmanned solutions, the implementation of which can increase the efficiency of technological and production processes through the prompt updating of information in terms of enterprise facilities" – says Maxim Maslovsky, service manager in charge of development of this area from Metinvest Digital. Metinvest Group.
Drones are used to solve a wide range of problems. Consider some of them:
Security and safety. The first drones appeared in Metinvest in 2018 and began to be used to protect the territory and objects of industrial infrastructure at Zaporizhstal, Ingulets and Northern Mining and Processing Plants. They help to minimize the level of violation of discipline, to monitor the integrity of raw materials and finished products in open warehouses, to conduct an operational inspection of cargo at the hub stations of the enterprise.
Career aerial photography. The 110-hectare Gleiwatt quarry is scanned by a drone in two and a half hours. During this time, he takes about 600 highly detailed images. This accuracy is ensured by the high density of the point cloud as a result of aerial photography. Even taking into account their further processing and construction of a detailed 3D-model, the result can be obtained ten times faster than traditional methods. With the help of drones it is possible to quickly monitor the progress of mining operations, the volume of production and rocks thrown to the lower horizons, to control the reliability of the sides and the condition of roads and slopes.
Inspection of hard-to-reach places. Indispensable drones for inspecting hard-to-reach and unhealthy areas. Thus, the quadcopter is used for scheduled inspections of industrial buildings and roofs, control of pipelines, the condition of technological roads and supports of power lines in the quarry for operational inspection of sludge dams. Previously, such processes took from one to three weeks of work. It only takes a few hours now.
Aerial photography of warehouses. With the help of a drone, you can also make an inventory of transshipment points and open warehouses with finished products. The high density of the point cloud provides high accuracy of the obtained data, which is extremely important for further production planning.
Additional uses of drones. In addition to the above, drones are used to obtain photos and videos for communication purposes, emergency monitoring, environmental control and more.
The future of drones
Robot bees, courier drones, drones in the form of birds patrolling the streets - all this is becoming a reality of our lives. No one doubts that drones are with us for a long time. They are able to minimize the role of the human factor, allow work to be carried out without stopping production processes, and so on.
If we talk about Ukraine, the number of drones is growing every day. The crisis has slowed somewhat, but has not stopped development. After all, in industry, logistics, agriculture there are a number of problems that require complex solutions using drones and special software.
