Servo - September 2015

Drones Receive Section 333 Exemption

The FAA is taking a sometimes frustratingly incremental approach to UAS integration into US airspace. In general, to obtain the required Special Airworthiness Certificate for civil operations, "applicants must be able to describe how their system is designed, constructed, and manufactured, including engineering processes, software development and control, configuration management, and quality assurance procedures used, along with how and where they intend to fly."

(Rumors that you also need to promise them your first-born are unconfirmed.) However, there is also the Section 333 Exemption, providing fast-track approval for operations in low risk controlled environments, and one was recently granted to Sky-Futures USA, Inc.

( www.sky-futures.com) to conduct oil and gas inspections.

The company's Ascending Technologies Falcon 8 drone is already performing the task elsewhere for such oil and gas companies as Talisman, Chevron, Conoco Philips, Apache, and others, and reportedly has logged 8,500+ hours providing live flare, structural, and under-deck inspections onshore and offshore. Using collected HD video, stills, and thermal imagery data, technical reports are written by in-house experts. By eliminating the risks and costs of sending out rope-climbers to do the job, Sky-Futures claims to offer savings of more than $4 million for offshore inspections. Reducing oil spills and other disasters isn't a bad feature, either. Sky-Futures' Falcon 8 drone in operation.

by Jeff and Jenn Eckert

Robytes

Automatic Solar Duster

Another bot that is taking over a job that is difficult and expensive for human beings is the Ecoppia ( www.ecoppia.com) E4 Water-Free Solar Panel Cleaning Robot. Each unit is self-powered and uses a self-maintained, water-free microfiber and airflow system that removes a claimed 99 percent of dust accumulation — even in harsh desert solar parks. Operation is fully automated, and the system includes

"comprehensive monitoring and management tools."

The robots move along a rigid aluminum frame using polyurethane-coated wheels to provide smooth movement with no load on the solar panel’s surface. Each robot is powered by five electric motors that provide horizontal, vertical, and rotational movement. To maintain smooth upward and downward movement, the E4 robot uses a winch system with two flexible coated silicon rubber wires that operate angularly from opposite sides of the winch cylinder to the center point of the microfiber cylinder frame.

Cleaning is performed at a pace of 108 ft2 per minute and typically takes place during the early hours to avoid shading during electricity generation hours. There is, of course, a video. Just search