United States : API Publishes New Guide for Innovative Drone Use in Natural Gas and Oil Industry

Futures and Commodity Market News
United States : API Publishes New Guide for Innovative Drone Use in Natural Gas and Oil Industry

May 31, 2019 (Euclid Infotech Ltd via COMTEX) —

API announced the publication of its Guide for Developing a UAS Program in the Oil and Natural Gas Industry, which will help ensure worker and operational safety as the industry introduces drones in its operations.

API is excited to announce a new guide for drone programs in the natural gas and oil industry, which have and will continue to grow significantly as new systems, applications, sensors and techniques are developed to make drone operations more tailored to the industry. The industry works to continuously integrate the latest technology, including the use of drones, to enhance safety and increase efficiencies in operations. However, before adopting their use, operators need to consider data protection, standard operating procedures, contingency planning, and risk management, said Suzanne Lemieux,..

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Drone Impact Ruled Out as Cause of Incident With Damaged Jetliner

A Grupo Aeromexico SAB airliner said to have been hit by a drone last December was actually damaged when a poorly done repair on the plane caused its nose to collapse and crack as it prepared to land.

An examination of the Boeing Co. 737-800’s crimped nose cone by the company’s forensic experts ruled out a collision with a drone or any other object, including birds, according to a report it submitted to the National Transportation Safety Board earlier this month. The document was reviewed by Bloomberg News.

Local media reports said the jetliner hit a drone as it neared Tijuana, Mexico, for a landing on Dec. 12. The plane’s nose cone, also known as a radome, was shown in photos with its front-left side caved in and cracked in multiple places.

The initial story created a stir because it would have been the first time a small consumer drone was implicated in a collision with a large jet. Within days, London’s Gatwick Airport was forced to shut for parts of three days after a drone was ..

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£4m in government funding granted to project for wind farm repairs using autonomous boats and drones 

A new research project which aims to develop a system of crawling robots and driverless boats to quickly repair offshore wind farms has been given £4.2m in government funding from Innovate UK.

The project involves organisations including the universities of Bristol and Manchester, as well as Wootzano, a British company developing an electronic skin for robots.

Engineers hope to use Thales’ Halcyon autonomous boats as well as drones which can survey any damage to the wind turbines and lift crawling robots on to the turbine’s blades.

The project, which will run for two years, is using BladeBUG robots, which use suction pads to crawl along the turbine blades. The Royal College of Art Robotics Laboratory is developing a robot arm which can be fitted onto the robots in order to repair the turbine blades whilst the devices cling to them.

If successful, the project could save the average wind farm around £26m in repair costs over the course of its lifetime, researchers said.

Martin Bourt..

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