Roboloon has flown its uncrewed airship to inspect the power grid in Germany. The company’s airships have the potential for long flight times and utilities provider Netze BW GmbH teamed up with Enpulse to plan a pilot project to test the concept earlier this month.
The first pilot was designed to determine whether an uncrewed airship could manoeuvre and take pictures like a multirotor drone? Could it follow a pre-defined flight path and take high resolution images in a stable, fully automated way?
Roboloon programmed the airship to fly along a stretch of three power poles and take images of every structural detail. The route covered a total distance of 1.5 km. The wind was blowing at up to 14 km/h.
Stakeholders from Netze BW GmbH, Enpulse and EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG were present along with members of the media. They witnessed the airship navigate its way from one pole to the next, then stop and remain steady to take photographs before moving on and then returning to land. The operation was fully automated.
Roboloon was supported by TTI Technologie-Transfer-Initiative GmbH, Startup Campus 0711, the Uni Stuttgart iFR at the University of Stuttgart and students.
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Image: Netze BW GmbH
