How & why are Drones being used in Inspections & surveys of a reservoir?

Using an underwater Drone for the inspection of reservoirs has so many benefits for not only the consumer but corporations too.

One company based in Washington, called Clark Public Utilities, conducts routine safety and maintenance of 35 water reservoirs and has recently introduced underwater Drones.

Traditionally, the reservoirs would have needed to be drained in order to have them inspected safely by an individual. Some of these reservoirs would contain 3 million gallons of water, which would incur drainage and refilling costs.

So you can understand why CPU introduced an ROV called the DTG2 ROV, due to its portability.  With built in lithium batteries there is now no need to use a generator to power the ROV. On average, a 90-minute charge can allow up to eight hours of operation, unlike previous methods that would take hours to not only drain but refill.

With the inclusion of this particular ROV, CPU claimed: ‘Some of our reservoirs are in a pressure zone with no other reservoir. It’s extra work to set up the pumping system to maintain pressure to our customers while we drain a reservoir. The ROV gives the capability of conducting routine inspections and keeping the reservoirs online; ensuring there is no interruption of service to the community.’

On inspection, the Deep Trekker ROV noticed some floating debris in the reservoir which allowed Clark Public Utilities to clean the reservoir, lowering operational costs, which in turn keeps the rates low for the consumer.

Thanks to the high definition camera on the ROV the video is transmits a live feed to a lightweight, handheld controller.

To collect the debris, a boom was fitted to the ROV which allowed it to ‘gather and push the debris towards the hatch for removal.

Essex & Suffolk Water, which is part of the Northumbrian Water Group, serves 1.8million consumers in the UK. And now with Covid 19 safety procedures in place an underwater ROV was necessary.

Greg Barrett of Essex & Suffolk Water says: ‘I would now class the traditional way of doing it as quite archaic when compared to the data set we achieved by drone. This way of conducting inspections is definitely part of the 21st century way of doing things and we hope this new approach is set to become the industry standard.’

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