This Company Just Unveiled The World’s Largest Autonomous Commercial Drone Deployment

July 25, 2022

Today Percepto, creators of award-winning autonomous robotics technology, announced its upcoming deployment of hundreds of drone-in-a-box (DIB) systems to support the largest power company in the United States, Florida Power & Light (FPL). This arrangement constitutes the largest commercial autonomous drone project in the world. Through it, the two pioneers intend to transform critical infrastructure resiliency for FPL’s 11 million customers.

The Project

DIB systems involve autonomous drones that launch from and return to networked landing boxes. These solutions allow organizations to pre-stage equipment onsite for scheduled or on demand remote autonomous operations. They also automate workflows and provide large volumes of high resolution data in unparalleled quantities.

During Phase One of this project, which will occur later this year, FPL will introduce 13 Percepto DIBs across the West Palm Beach area to monitor substations and power distribution grids. Over the next five to seven years, during follow-on phases, FPL will similarly inject hundreds of Percepto drones, through a singular network, across the entire Sunshine State.

Foundation of Success

This latest effort builds on years of prior collaborations between FPL and the Israel-based autonomous industrial inspection tech leader. FPL initially launched Percepto’s DIB technology for research and development (R&D) in 2018. At the time, FPL was the first utility to integrate autonomous drones into state-wide utility site surveillance and inspections.

Based on that initial project’s successes and safety record, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued FPL the first-of-its-kind nationwide beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) waiver. Current FAA rules require commercial drone operators to fly their aircraft within their visual line of sight. This ground-breaking approval enabled FPL to fly Percepto drones BVLOS at FPL-owned or serviced sites.