“It’s not possible to fly a drone in a pipe” was my initial reaction when my 21-year-old son suggested inspecting stormwater pipes using drones. My reaction was based on the toy drones that we played with at our home and crashed and destroyed many times. My son, Jacob Fowler, a senior at Columbus State University completing dual Bachelor of Business Administration Finance and Management of Information Systems Degrees made this suggestion while working the summer at my company Enviro Trenchless.

We got into the conversation while I was picking my son’s brain for technology ideas for my industry. Along with his business-related college studies, Jacob is a self-taught tech geek (my description). In a matter of days after our conversation Jacob shared with me technology that could make possible flying in pipes and other dark confined spaces.

Jacob found a Swiss company, Flyability, that may be able to help address my concerns and provide the equipment that we needed. After a demo of the equipment, we found their drone technology quality to be in keeping with that of their country’s Swiss Knife and Swiss Watch and made the decision to purchase their Elios 2 drone.

We found the technology to be very accommodating for our industry:

• Collision-Resistant Cage

• 10,000 lumens of light, oblique lighting and the ability to see in dusty/misty environments

• HD 4K Camera capable of 30 frames per second at inspection speeds up to 4.25 feet/second

• The camera tilts 180 degrees

• Thermal Camera

• Data capture allows high quality photos from the video frame by frame or from points of interest collected during the inspection

• Speed. The drone can provide general condition assessment pipe inspections up 1,000 LF in less than 10 minutes

One thing left to do was to be able to describe the benefits to clients of using drones to inspect pipes…other than it is super cool! My excitement grew as we started to think through the benefits of drone inspection of pipes over traditional crawling camera systems. Below is a list of the benefits that we discovered:

• Voids in the bottom of rusted corrugated metal pipes prevent traditional crawling camera systems from completing inspections of the entire pipe. Many operators have pushed the limits trying to get a better look and ended up digging up the pipe to retrieve the camera.
• The drone can quickly and easily video the pipe in both directions to detect open CMP pipe joints that may be difficult to see when videoing in one direction.
• It is difficult for traditional crawling camera systems to access stormwater piping behind houses and remote areas. Access is much easier with the drone.
• Many crawling camera systems must be modified to match the pipe size. No modifications are required with the drone.
• Traditional crawling camera systems may have difficulty crawling over large rocks and debris in the piping. Drones can safely navigate over the debris and provide information to determine how much debris needs to be removed from the pipe.
• Traditional crawling camera systems take longer to set up and video than drones. Drones are ready to go in a matter of minutes and can inspect long pipe segments in less than 10 minutes providing quality 4K video at 30 frames per second. This efficiency makes contracting drone inspection services very competitive when compared to traditional crawling camera services.

While discussing the benefits we did have to talk about some disadvantages:

• The drone is limited to pipes and openings that are 16 inches and larger. However, most municipal stormwater piping is greater than 16” (I was reminded by Jacob that drone technology is changing so rapidly that smaller pipes may be possible very soon.)
• The skills required to fly a drone through a pipe is many times greater than required to operate a crawling camera system. The training investment is expensive. Qualified pilots may cost 2 or more times more than traditional crawling camera operators. However, the training and pilot cost may be overcome by efficiency. Advances in technology should make piloting easier.
• Drone inspections may require FAA pilot certifications and compliance with additional regulations.
• The drone is much more fragile than traditional crawling camera systems. While the Elois 2 has a collision resistant cage that allows for bumping, it can suffer severe damage from a crash or fall costing many thousands of dollars to repair. The Elios 2 is water resistant but not waterproof. These factors also make the drone much more expensive to insure.

While drone inspection technology is in its infancy, we feel the benefits will overcome the disadvantages and allow us to provide unmatched services to our clients. We are excited when we consider the rapid pace of drone technology advancements and how quickly the advancements can make this service “mainstream”.

Though we chose to start using the Elios 2 for pipe inspections, we have plans to use it to inspect confined spaces and bridges. We feel this technology will help us serve our clients by applying tomorrow’s technology to today’s infrastructure needs and provide better, faster, safer and less expensive services.

I would like to thank my son, Jacob Fowler, for his invaluable help making drone technology available to our stormwater industry clients. I am also happy to announce that Jacob Fowler will be joining Enviro Trenchless upon graduation from college to help manage our contracted drone inspection services and find new technologies to better serve our clients.

Glenn Fowler has a Bachelor of Civil Engineering Technology Degree from Southern Polytechnic State University and is Owner of Enviro Trenchless located in Warner Robins, GA. He has more than 30 years of experience in civil engineering related infrastructure projects. Enviro Trenchless, LLC is a licensed Underground Utility Contractor that specializes in innovative trenchless repair and inspection methods.