New scopes of drone

In the Japanese prefecture, Ibaraki decided to use drones to combat unauthorized landfills.

According to Kenji Suzuki, who holds the post of deputy head of the industrial waste disposal department of the prefectural environmental management, drones are an innovative opportunity to clean the environment and the reputation of the prefecture. The use of drones as a new tracking weapon will allow you to find sources of illegal dumping of industrial garbage. Back in May, the administration of Ibaraki Prefecture began using drones for this task. And already in the middle of summer, pictures of 6 sites were ready, 5 of which were dumped industrial waste, and in 6 the dump of land surplus was formed. The administration sees drones as their main task in monitoring their work on cleaning up contaminated areas.

Kenji Suzuki emphasizes the high efficiency of the use of drones. Since the shooting is from the air, it allows you to see the whole picture. Workers have to clean more carefully, clearing not only those areas that are viewed from the ground.
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Thus, the use of drones allowed environmentalists to determine that waste from one territory was simply transferred to another, and the vacated area was filled with other debris. The company, which performed the work, presented photo evidence and demanded to make a high-quality cleaning.

Ibaraki Prefecture is located near the capital district. It is characterized by a large number of construction projects. In addition, it is easy to hide waste in a wooded area. Therefore, illegal landfills are common here.

The number of landfills reached its peak in 2003. Environmentalists then counted 351 areas used for waste. And although the number of landfills has declined since that time, the prefecture has long remained the leader in terms of their numbers. Now in Ibaraki about 522 thousand tons of waste has accumulated. And drones are called to fight with a huge number of illegal dumps.

Opportunities for improving performance

To get rid of landfills, the administration chose the Chinese drone model "Phantom-3". They are produced by DJI. A joystick is used to control the drone as if it were a radio-controlled car. Piloting the drone is very simple. Attached to each device is a camera that allows you to take photos and carry out video surveillance . For each drone prefecture paid 200 thousand yen.



All images are transmitted in real time to the operator’s smartphones and tablets. The operation radius of the drone is 700 m. In case the distance is exceeded, the drone will independently return to the take-off location.

In the prefecture there is a high risk of increased waste dumping. This is due to the construction of facilities for the Olympics, which will be held in Tokyo in 2020 ... Over the past 2014, 235 illegal landfills were reported to the industrial waste disposal department. However, to effectively combat this problem requires the development of a quality control system.

Kenji Suzuki expresses the hope that the use of UAVs will become this very controlling factor, and will also have a deterrent effect. For this aircraft will be actively involved.

In addition to Ibaraki Prefecture, drones are planned to use in Aichi Prefecture, where there is also a large amount of waste. In the future, if the project proves successful, other prefectures will be connected to it.

Drones for troubleshooting light panels

Sohgo Security Services is a company that has been using drones since this summer. Then they were used to conduct technical inspections of large-scale solar power plants. The drone, controlled by the operator, shot the solar panels in flight, and the information obtained was used to study and analyze the status of the panel.

The company operates in Ibaraki and Okinawa prefectures with a total of ten power plants. Also orders from Sohgo Security Services have made another 20 power plants. The head of the advertising department of the company, Katsuyuki Miyoshi, hopes that with soon there will be even more people willing to make an order.

Initially, technical inspection of solar panels was carried out in another way. Employees had to go around a huge area to view each panel. To understand whether the panel produces electricity, it was immediately impossible. To conduct a thorough inspection, it took a lot of time and money.

The Zion FH940 drones used for observation were produced by the Japanese brand enRoute, but underwent some improvements. In particular, the drones added infrared cameras. These devices needed to be installed to recognize the “hot spots” on the panel. This name received places that heat up more than others. Overheating occurs when leaves fall onto the panel. This leads to a decrease in the amount of energy produced and, consequently, the efficiency of the panel.



Drones are able to be in flight for about 20 minutes. The GPS system, which is installed on the drone, allows it to automatically move in a given direction and arrive at the right place. The operator can choose the angle of inclination for the development and the required height. To inspect the solar power plant in one megawatt, the drone takes 10 minutes.

For the company, the ability of the model to remain stable during the flight was important, while the drone still has two cameras attached. Therefore, preference was given to those devices that are able to cope with such a load. The total price of the drone was 2 million yen.

Cost reduction

The price of the inspection will always be influenced by the size of the power plant. If we talk about two-megawatt installations, you will have to give 168 thousand yen. Inspection of a 4-5 megawatt installation will be cheaper if it is conducted using an unconventional method involving people.

Employees of the company even prepared a special manual for safe flights. It noted that when the wind speed is more than 5 m / s, the drone should not take off, just as it is forbidden to fly over a man. Two should control the drone: the operator controlling the flight, and the operator to monitor the readings.

The company organized courses that train to manage drones. The student must complete a 100-hour course. Only those who have completed the full course are allowed to manage. Now only 4 specialists are working, but the organization is going to expand the staff and carry out work throughout the country.

The company Sohgo Security Services is going to provide additional services, including security, repair of installations, training courses for the management of UAVs.

UAVs will change the infrastructure for the better

The aging of such buildings as tunnels, bridges and other social infrastructure objects pose a great danger. The solution to this problem took the company Fujitsu. They began to introduce technology for the inspection of bridges, which uses drones. At the moment, engineers inspect the bridges with the help of special equipment: they examine the visual state, tap the surface with a hammer to identify faults with the help of sound.

To conduct an inspection, the road is blocked. This is very inconvenient due to the expenditure of funds and time-consuming. UAVs will speed up this process, it is also an opportunity to make the process safer.

The system proposed by the specialists collects data about the building, on the basis of which a 3D model of the bridge is formed. Her inspect and analyze the state.

All studies are carried out under the program of strategic innovations with the support of the Organization for the Development of New Energy and Industrial Technologies. The project is scheduled for 2019.

The drone has two cameras. One is for shooting an object, the other is for positioning. To get a 3D model, you need to take a picture from a set distance. An important question remains image stabilization. Strong wind does not allow you to take a clear picture, you have to spend considerable efforts on image stabilization. Especially for this task was developed drone with wheels. They allow you to move, and also maintain the necessary distance to the object.

The information recorded by the drone is sent to the database. The coordinates and images recorded in it are used to create a 3D model. This allows you to see even those sites that remain inaccessible. All photographs are of high quality, allowing you to consider any microcracks.

Today in Japan there are about 700 thousand bridges. The demand for maintenance services can be incredibly high. Naoyuki Sawadzaki, one of the Fujitsu employees, gave the name to 3D models - “3D electronic maps of buildings”.

Future inspection technologies will allow analysis of the internal state of cracks. In addition, a system will be created that allows you to monitor age-related changes. 3D-models will also be used for this, comparing them with each other.

The use of drones will allow the development of a completely new service industry. But there are still a number of security concerns.

To solve this problem, the relevant rules are being prepared. So, in the government some time ago adopted a law defining the rules for the operation of UAVs. And in August, a directive was issued by the Japanese Industrial Development Association UAS , specializing in the popularization of drones.