The 3D reconstruction of a building or a bridge is fascinating because in the end our mind immediately runs to briefing with digital floor plans by Mission Impossible o 007but in reality the amazement should be reserved for the construction phase entrusted to the drones.
And here comes the startup Dron-e (born as Easy City) which from the outskirts of Catanzaro has managed in just over eight years not only to conquer a solid position in the consultancy, assistance and repairs for drones – mainly for businesses – but also to specialize in creation of “digital twins”.
They are called digital twin in the IT environment because they are exact 3d digital reproductions of physical structures. For example, in the field of engineering they are very useful because in addition to allowing the detection of structural anomalies, they represent the basis for repairs, allow you to simulate load tests and facilitate development projects. If it all comes back digitally, since even the measurements are down to the millimeter (the margin is 3 mm), then in reality there should be no problems. “We were among the first Italian companies to offer drone pilot training. Then we signed important partnerships including that with DJI manufacturer, which holds about 90% of the world market “, explains us Antonio Mazza, technical director of Dron-e and responsible for project planning. “We call ourselves a drone service & solution provider because we take care of the entire drone ecosystem “.
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Dron-e in practice recommends the ideal drone to companies or professionals for specific activities, then takes care of the training, assistance, repairs and any other needs. Some large client companies, such as Anas, Eni or Terna, have structured internal departments dedicated to drones but when an ultra-specialized activity is needed they rely on the small Calabrian company. And this is what happened at the beginning of March with a drone weighing less than ten kilograms which in autonomous flight detected the correct three-dimensional measurements of the La Motta Nord tunnel, located in Stefanaconi in the Vibonese area. Anas needed to minimize the inconvenience to motorists by closing the section for a short time and have structural measurements to evaluate any interventions.
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Well, with an electric hum that lasted about twenty minutes and two successive days of work in the Dron-e laboratories, Anas found herself in her hands a digital twin of the gallery. “A parameterized modelwith the possibility of generating further submodels (architectural – plant engineering – structural) and the association of a database to be interrogated, containing geometric information, descriptive details on the state of affairs, on the maintenance phases and on any design “, points out the company of drones The secret of this success is due to the Handle Hovermap with Slam technology and the skills and proprietary software of the startup specialists; on the other hand, we are talking about a small brigade of engineers in their thirties, of which four are partners.
“The hardware component plays an important role but thereunlike our algorithms and our internally developed software capable of automatically extracting the sections in a few minutes “, remembers Mazza.
A small Lidar with Slam technology for drones
The Lidar (laser detection and ranging) is a laser-based device that adopts a technique of remote sensing capable of determining the distance to an object or a surface. The high frequency of laser pulses generates a point cloud which can be worked out to accomplish a three-dimensional image. The term Lidar will probably not be so new to many and the reason is due to the fact that it is used by Google’s road-mapping cars, experimental self-driving vehicles, archaeologists, military fighters and many other areas.
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The substantial novelty compared to the past is that the Australian Emesent, in turn a partner of Dron-e, has developed a line of Lidars that can be installed on drones also equipped with the Slam component that implements “simultaneous localization and mapping” without GPS. In summary the latest 1.6 kilogram model mounts on any type of droneif desired interfaces with avionics and consequently while it maps the environment it even allows the flight in complete autonomy without any type of remote control.
“This is exactly what we did with Anas, since in the tunnel there are no prohibitions that ENAC normally provides for open environments. It should be emphasized that we are talking about a drone equipped with Lidar with a total operational mass at take-off of only 6, 4 kg and an autonomy of about 30 minutes. It looks like a toy and being under 25 kg the normal license is enough “, Mazza emphasizes. Dron-e, in addition to being the contact person in Italy for Emeset, is a partner of Aerodyne Group, the global giant in asset inspections for infrastructure and agriculture maintenance. “We were able to schedule flight missions for customers in the United Arab Emirates, Australia and other countries by working from Catanzaro and then sending the pilots on site. We even mapped a uranium mine and in a few days created a navigable 3D map “, explains the expert. In another case, a company had lost the technical drawings of some of its infrastructures: a traditional survey to reconstruct the projects would have taken a long time.”With the drone, we detected a bridge in 29 minutes and 24 hours later we provided the digital reconstruction as required “, continues Mazza.
Terna in Vibo Valentia had to change the head of an electric pylon due to the proximity of the wires to the roofs of new homes. “Our design was essential to make all the calculations relating to the new structural load and therefore the static and conceptual checks”, adds the young startupper.
Automatic flight and autonomous flight
In the world of drones this is often done confusion between automatic flight and autonomous flight. In the first case, the drone is programmed to react to events in a pre-set way, relying on the sensors and providing for interventions by the pilot remotely. In the second case, the pilot plans the mission and sets the control parameters, after which no human intervention is required. The drone constantly scans the environment and with respect to its mission finds the best solutions and acts accordingly.
The problem is that the European and national regulations, but actually also at a global level, are very restrictive towards autonomous flight. It is no coincidence that Emeset itself was born for the mapping of Australian mines, where confined and unmanned environments allow total freedom of action. However, Dron-e is discussing with Enac for special authorization that can soften (safely) the current line. There is still no talk of autonomous flight “because it would take one or two years” says Mazza “but of a Blvos scenario (beyond visual line of sight), beyond the pilot’s point of view “.
Get lost
Technology runs faster than regulations, but legitimately realities such as the National Civil Flight Authority and the European Union Agency for Aviation Safety have a guarantee task to perform. Right now the rules only allow visual flightin the slang Vlos (visual line of sigh); the pilot must in fact always maintain visual contact with the aircraft. Dron-e recently received an order from an electricity company for the survey of a four kilometer long high voltage line. Normally in Vlos it would be necessary to carry out the activity with four stops to give the pilot time to reach the drone and re-establish eye contact. “
But we could do the same thing in less time with a single Blvos flight using the Lidar. In fact, we must remember that he detects obstacles at 360 ° and is not only capable of identify wires with a thickness of 2 mm but also avoid them“, assures Mazza. In short, it is a compromise request with a pilot present, active and assisted by all the normal sensors, with the addition of the Lidar for the automatic avoidance of obstacles.