Percepto Offers the Most Durable Industrial Drone-in-a-Box

Percepto Offers the Most Durable Industrial Drone-in-a-Box; First to Pass Level 5 Hurricane Testing

By Sagi Blonder, Co Founder & CTO July 21, 2020

Florida Power & Light is deploying Percepto’s Sparrow Drone for emergency response immediately after storms

Modi’in, Israel July 16, 2020 — Percepto, the global market leader for autonomous industrial drone solutions, today announced that it’s on-site autonomous drone has passed level 5 hurricane testing at the Florida International University Wall of Wind. The box can withstand winds of up to 150mph making it the most rugged AI drone-in-a-box on the market for all weather conditions. The drone platform is already able to l& in high winds & in snow.

The World Bank attributes 10% of power outages to hurricanes, which is the costliest of natural weather disasters as they can cause serious damage to a power plant’s infrastructure & cooling towers. Moreover, this year’s hurricane season is forecast to continue the trend of being progressively worse every year. The innovation allows customers like Florida Power & Light (FPL) to react immediately in the aftermath of a hurricane, assessing & fixing any damage without endangering their staff, when the weather is still very challenging in the state where the most residents per year experiencing outages.

“As soon as the storm passes, we can have this up…inspecting our plant & knowing immediately what sort of damage we have so we’re able to get our power back on that much sooner… for a utility to be able to see our infrastructure in areas where we can’t get to safely; to quickly fly over it & understand what our conditions are…the safety of our crews is paramount.” Michael Dorr, lead pilot for Florida Power & Light’s Drone in a Box system.

FPL’s goal is to eventually put a drone-in-a-box at every substation, transmission yard, plant & solar facility, according to Eric Schwartz, manager of FPL’s aerial intelligence response. “We can fly every single day & use image recognition to be able to identify a potential issue & reduce the number of outages to our customers,” he said.

FPL, – one of the biggest energy companies in the United States absorbed $274 million of damage to their infrastructure in 2019 from Hurricane Dorian, leaving 160,000 customers without power.

Percepto’s system is approved by the FAA for flights two miles Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLoS) & FPL’s waiver from the FAA enables the solution to cover the entire facility with regular, pre-programmed autonomous flights over the plant’s 11,000 acres. The Percepto Sparrow drones stay above 130 feet to avoid power poles & other obstructions. FPL has six drones installed in five different locations. By the end of the year FPL will have two further sites using Percepto’s solution on the Treasure Coast, one in St. Lucie County & another in Vero Beach with a plan to deploy autonomous drones at all of its substations after that.

“Covid-19 has left critical sites such as power stations bereft of crucial staff, while hospitals & homes have become more vulnerable, isolated & dependent on their utility providers. For our customers, drones ensure minimal downtime despite staff shortages & in the worst weather conditions” Dor Abuahsira, CEO of Percepto

About Percepto

Percepto is a leading provider of autonomous drone-in-a-box solutions for monitoring & securing critical infrastructure & industrial sites. Our advanced, AI-based software provides real-time insights, aiding our customers to assess risk, minimize downtime, drive efficiency & reduce operational costs without having an operator on site. Tested in all weather conditions, it is the most rugged platform available today.

Percepto is the most deployed drone-in-a-box solution in the market with Fortune 500 customers in more than 10 countries.

Article provided by Percepto

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