Telangana uses drones to inspect power lines, towers and minimises human intervention

Telangana IT Minister KT Rama Rao on Tuesday announced the successful completion of a pilot project that explored the use of drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (EAVs) for the inspection of extra high tension (EHT) transmission towers and lines to overcome the limitations of manual inspections.

In the year-long pilot, which began in August 2020, drones and artificial intelligence tools were used to undertake aerial surveys and generate inspection reports. The emerging technologies wing of Telangana’s ITE&C department partnered with Transmission Corporation of Telangana (TS-Transco) for the project.

During the trials, Hyderabad-based startup Centillion Networks demonstrated its capabilities in drone technology for inspection, monitoring, and patrolling of EHT transmission towers, lines, and substations with a high-quality 4K resolution camera and AI-based image recognition system.