The rapid development of unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned aircraft systems promises to change the way a host of services will be delivered to the gas, oil and mining sector. The versatile flying craft can carry payloads ranging from high-resolution cameras to other sophisticated sensors and can provide an array of functions ranging from surveying to leak detection and security flyovers.
"We can see many challenges for the pipeline industry where UAVs and UASs can become viable solutions," says Mark Piazza, director of Pipeline Programs with the Pipeline Research Council International. "They could assist in leak detection, and be used to inspect and monitor assets, particularly in areas where data needs to be collected quickly, for example near a pipeline river crossing during high flow conditions. It's not something that will happen tomorrow, but will become more common as the industry becomes more comfortable with the technology."
Aeryon Labs Inc. of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, has been targeting customers in the GOM sector with its own small UAS (sUAS), the Aeryon Scout, since 2009. The Scout aerial vehicle weighs less than 3 pounds and uses a lithium-polymer battery to power four propellers that provide the Scout with lift, stability and forward thrust.
"We've reached a point where the use of the Scout provides clear economic benefits for a wide range of applications over traditional alternatives such as manned aircraft or ground survey crews," says Ian McDonald, vice president of Product Marketing at Aeryon. "We're seeing considerable possibilities for contractors in the resource sector to replace the three 'Ds' — work that is dull, dirty or dangerous."
Flies above 1,500 feet
Aeryon offers two system configurations, a military and a commercial offering. Both models can fly to altitudes beyond 1,500 feet above ground level (AGL) and remain aloft for 25 minutes on a single battery charge.
The commercial model flies to a range of about a half-mile and back, while the military configuration offers additional features and a longer range, flying to a distance of about two miles out and back.
The units have been tested in a temperature range between -22 and 122 degrees F, from the Bering Sea in Alaska to the deserts of Saudi Arabia, and in sustained winds up to 30 miles per hour and wind gusts up to 50 miles per hour.
"We've spent considerable effort designing the controls so that they don't require a high degree of training to operate successfully," says McDonald.
The Scout is controlled by a touch-screen tablet. Users can provide manual inputs through simple point-and-click controls on a map to navigate the vehicle, and aim the camera using a live video feed. Alternately, users can specify an automated flight plan by drawing a grid over an area of interest, instructing the vehicle to fly at a certain altitude while following a series of GIS coordinates they want the Scout to cover.
In another mode, the Scout can fly ahead, behind or beside the operator at a prescribed horizontal distance and altitude.
Joystick offers no joy
The absence of a typical joystick control found in remote-controlled hobby helicopters was a deliberate design choice.
"On remote-control hobby helicopters, when the vehicle faces away from the operator, pushing left on the joystick makes the vehicle move left," says McDonald. "When the helicopter faces towards the operator, all the controls become reversed, and require the operator to think in a mirrored orientation. If you're sending out an sUAS to capture urgent data on a potential oil pipeline leak, you can't devote all of your attention to simply keeping the vehicle in the air."
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The Scout is also programmed to know when its batteries will be depleted, factoring in the distance and wind conditions necessary to get 'home.'
"When it reaches that limit, it automatically flies back to the operator, lands and waits for you to swap out a fresh set of batteries," says McDonald.
The company bills the Scout as less of an aircraft and more of a platform for different applications required by contractors.
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"We work with clients to provide specialized solutions or instrumentation, whether camera optics or other sensors, including the option for custom development to customer specification," he says. "The range of available payloads continues to grow as more and more sensors are available in micro sizes suitable for an sUAS like the Scout."
Range of payloads
The standard-issue optical payload for the Scout is the Photo3S, a three-axis stabilized, high-resolution still camera. This can be swapped out for a VideoZoom10X optical zoom video camera, a Thermal FLIR infrared video camera, or a Photo3S-NIR near infrared camera. More esoteric resource sector payloads include CO2 sensors, methane sensors, hydrocarbon sensors and air quality samplers.
"With the still camera, you can perform aerial infrastructure surveys, plan out a new plant site or a route for a pipeline, or audit and monitor pipeline construction progress," says McDonald.
Working in AutoGrid mode, the user instructs the system to follow a set of GIS coordinates representing a proposed pipeline route or plant area. When the Scout returns, it supplies the user with a set of GIS-tagged images that can be overlapped and stitched together using a software package to create a high-resolution mosaic of the area. The image data can also be synthesized into a color-coded, three-dimensional image that displays the elevations of the terrain or a model of the existing infrastructure.
"An unmanned system can fly lower and slower than a manned aircraft — under 100 feet — so the resolution of the images is considerably higher," says McDonald. "The camera can produce images at a ground resolution down to one centimeter per pixel."
Video surveillance tool
The video camera can be used for video security surveillance. It can also hover over critical infrastructure to provide a visual record of any damage to speed up inspection and service restoration planning by ground repair crews.
"We're not suggesting this is a replacement for helicopters or airplanes that are assessing hundreds of miles of pipeline," says McDonald. "However, if you're surveying a pipeline located in hilly terrain surrounded by thick vegetation, customers should consider potential safety risks to pilots or those on the ground. An sUAS also offers the ability to not only fly over a pipeline, but also alongside it, to provide a much more thorough look at the infrastructure."
The thermal infrared camera offers nighttime surveillance and can help to identify the temperature differentials that are caused by leaks and cracks in pipes and other infrastructure.
The near infrared camera is being used as a tool for vegetation management. The camera can help determine the difference between a dead tree that might be ready to fall across a pipeline, and a live tree that may risk encroaching on oil or gas infrastructure in the future.
Regulations in flux
McDonald notes that the worldwide sUAS market serving the resource sector is robust. However, the current regulatory climate in North America is still in flux.
In Canada, the vehicles are commercially available, but treated as other aircraft. Users must file a flight application with Transport Canada, the country's federal aviation authority, before sending an sUAS into the air.
Airspace regulations limit commercial and public safety flights to 400 feet AGL, but this is the usual working space for an sUAS, which typically flies lower and slower than a manned aircraft. The craft must also be kept in line of sight.
In the U.S., the Federal Aviation Authority is working on a framework for commercial sUAS operation. The aircraft are subject to the same altitude and line-of-site limitations specified north of the border, but are only licensed for use by public entities, including the military, police and other government agencies. Each public agency must file a Certificate of Authorization application with the FAA before it can operate an sUAS.
"However, the FAA regulations include colleges as public agencies," says McDonald. "Many proactive resource sector companies are operating outside the U.S., or partnering with domestic colleges and universities in research projects to help them determine how they could use such systems and hit the ground running when the regulatory framework for commercial use is established and the airspace opens more broadly."
One such Aeryon client is BP Alaska. The company has conducted extensive trials with the Aeryon Scout at its operations in Prudhoe Bay in cooperation with the University of Alaska's Unmanned Aircraft Program (see sidebar).
The Aeryon Scout has also been used for one of the dullest jobs in the resource sector — analyzing the volumes of coal piles.
"Typically, a contractor will be called to climb over the pile and measure its dimensions in order to determine its volume," says McDonald. "It's time-consuming and potentially dangerous, but necessary because the volume of the coal inventory has tax implications. The Scout can fly over the pile, create a three-dimensional model of the pile, and calculate the volume from those models."
BP Takes the Scout for a Test Drive
BP Alaska has been conducting extensive trials with the Aeryon Scout, a small unmanned aircraft system, at its operations in Prudhoe Bay in cooperation with the Unmanned Aircraft Program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
BP originally acquired Aeryon systems for oil spill planning and environmental assessments in 2011.
Since then, the company has worked with live flare heads at BP installations where a manned inspection flight was considered too dangerous. The Scout collected video and high-resolution images of the flares and their supporting pipe infrastructure so BP could determine maintenance priorities for the company’s equipment.
In the fall of 2012, the Scout’s high-resolution cameras were used to conduct visual and infrared inspections of equipment to help crews assess and respond to maintenance needs.
“We’re using the Aeryon Scout as a prototype, testing and looking at pipelines to see how it works,” says Glen Pomeroy, director of Pipeline Assurance with BP Alaska. “It can fly nearly at ground level with the pipeline, something that we don’t have to have a pilot for and something that lets us fly at our opportune time, not just the best weather time. If the technology proves out to be workable, it may be a technology we can use to enhance our operations in Prudhoe Bay.”
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