• Problem

It is difficult to detect leaks manually in huge pipeline structures and most pipeline inspection techniques work on a defined route only. The huge infrastructure of these systems and their presence in the most challenging terrains establishes a viable problem. So our drone technology focuses on minimizing human involvement in the inspection of gas pipelines and it also helps in the early detection and in avoidance of any hazards.

- Significance of Problem The world’s economies depend on these critical supplies of energy. Hazards such as rust formation or leaks in huge pipeline infrastructures can lead to great losses in businesses and some can cause a biohazard. Manual inspections come with a set of limitations themselves. HoverFly drone inspection eliminates the human need and can beforehand prevent huge gas leak hazards and help companies in maintenance avoiding any misfortune.

Benefits if solved !!

• Natural Gas Pipeline’s thorough monitoring.

Human inspection is limited to a particular extent.

Secure inspections without limited inaccuracy.

Autonomous Inspection

Added Safety and Redundancy

Decreased Response TIme

Faster Detection of Problem and Isolation of the root cause

Non-intrusive leakage, corrosion, and physical damage detection

Optimized and enhanced transportation & leak detection

- Gaps & Challenges in Existing Solutions if any. The existing solutions risk human life when inspecting in particular risky terrains or unreachable landscapes. Also, the gaseous environment takes a toll on the health of the inspecting personnel. The current solutions are deployed only in some defined routes leaving a possibility of malfunctions in attended routes.

- Your Idea / Solution Gas pipeline inspection using completely autonomous drones! The idea of Hoverfly is inspired by nature and the flying insects, they have the ability to perform all kinds of remarkable maneuvers and hover.

The HoverFly is a play on words by using a pun Hover and Fly.

The hoverfly is also a remarkable insect that inspired ‘Hoverfly’, our drone, which has a good electronic sensor array. The hoverfly has compounded eyes that allow it to extract all kinds of data from its environment much like our drone.

We are a drone technology startup, intelligent autonomous solutions and we are offering an intelligent and autonomous solution, the current focus is inspection, surveillance, and maintenance of gas pipelines.

The drone is going to be able to inspect damages that are hard to detect, minimizing human involvement, rich info gathering enables us to be aware of the context helping the company in execution.

- Technology Used + Functionalities Our drone is working on a wireless distributed network system, and sensor. The drone, and ground station, all integrated on the same network. The drone has the ability to map its surroundings and follow predetermined paths by using the camera to visualize the environment.

Using this we are also able to inspect the pipe damages and also identify the causes and recommend maintenance. This also helps the company prevent leaks preemptively, we are using machine learning to get traditional computer vision techniques.

Navigation of the drone and inspection is helped using infrared ultimate and IMU.

Our drone also comes with an interchangeable payload with different parts that helps us modify its behavior based on the context of the situation.

Automation and Computer Vision - Line Following Context Awareness \ Object Recognition Detection of visual signs of Degradation Perimeter Security Maintenance Automatic Emergency Valve Shut off Isolation of Leak Location Mapping via Odometry Intelligent inspection

The drone is also programmable to be deployed in other cases.

The hardware prototype of our drone implements Keypress control, odometry, Line following, and a variety of other sensor implementations that help us to determine the leakages in the pipelines.

Prototype stack -

Toy drone w imu (8k ₹)

Raspberry pi zero wireless (1.4₹)

Arduino 400 ₹

Servos (300₹x3)

Camera (1400₹)

Ground Station (laptop) x

Open cv x TensorFlow

Natural gas sensor (280 ₹)

Flow rate sensor (1300 ₹)

IR Distance sensor (580 ₹)

- Your Learnings & Takeaways

Our solution promotes enhanced renewable energy monitor. We can save approx 3 lakhs if we substitute helicopters with drones, its Simpler, safer, and greener. We also learned about optimizing power efficiency and energy conservation Non-reliant on toxic fossil fuels and other hazardous emissions Also how Prevention of lethal gas emanations can work.

- Conclusion

We are testing our autonomous and intelligent software by prototyping on electronically hacked drones to inspect, monitor, and detect degradation or leaks in Natural Gas Pipeline and related infrastructure.

Now to avoid leakages and to regulate pressure, we’ll be interfacing with the regulatory valves inside the pipelines using servos. There are serious dependencies that are affected and losses that occur during a complete shutoff. To avoid that and ensure safety we will trigger a complete shutoff of the flow in the faulty pipe on detecting leaks that cross the safety threshold. However, we will decrease the pressure in the pipe using the flow rate sensor and the servos to reduce leaks without compromising the larger system.

Business Idea

We are aiming at Renting out our drones to pipeline maintenance and inspection companies.

The maintenance of the drone would be provided by us

A drone contract would be implemented for companies for pipeline inspection.

Maintenance stations would be set up near the pipelines in an accessible region for any update, modification, or battery renewal.

All of our clients will be required to sign a Drone surveillance contract making them eligible for further maintenance and supervision of the drones.

Any updates, modifications, replacements required will be then handled by our team at the Repair stations that we’ll be setting up in close proximity to these gas pipelines.

Some of the applicable future prospects of the drone include

geographical surveys, search and rescue, agricultural research, military and defense tech, inventory /warehouse managing, and deliveries. In the future, our autonomous path algorithm-based drone can help passenger aircraft based on multirotor design.