UAS used to remotely inspect runway at Cranfield Airport in England

August 10, 2020 | AUVSI News

For the first time, UAS were used to remotely inspect the runway at Cranfield Airport, which is located just outside the village of Cranfield, in Bedfordshire, England. 

Utilizing ‘drone-in-a-box’ technology, the flights’ goal was to enable routine inspections using UAS that can be automatically deployed, recovered and recharged without the need for an on-site pilot.

“As a fully-functional research airport located on a university campus, this kind of technology demonstration and development exercise is very much in our DNA,” says Rob Abbott, director of Aviation Operations at Cranfield Airport.

“Using UAVs to conduct inspections could reduce operational costs and is another example of the work we are doing to explore and harness the potential of unmanned aircraft.”

Regulations currently require UAS to be operated within visual line of sight (VLOS) of the remote pilot at all times. Due to current VLOS restrictions, initial flights are inspecting half of the runway. The flights take around 30 minutes to complete as the UAS fly at 100 feet from the ground.

Before each flight, flight requests are made to air traffic control. Images or videos taken are combined and uploaded to cloud storage for visual review.

Work is ongoing to automate the evaluation process with the use of more advanced sensors or thermal imaging cameras to detect and highlight hazards.

“We are very excited to be working on this with Cranfield Airport. We see enormous benefits to using drone-in-a-box technology for industrial inspection and monitoring applications,” says Edward Anastassacos, managing director of HEROTECH8, the company providing the ‘drone-in-a-box’ system.

“With Cranfield, we hope to demonstrate a continuous runway monitoring capability. These flights are a step towards fully automated, industrial drone operations at scale.”

According to Cranfield University, drones could be used in the future to inspect other areas such as perimeter fences. These operations could take place regularly; for example, in the morning before the Airport opens, and in the evening after closing, to detect damage or the presence of foreign objects which can be dangerous for aircraft.