Tower Engineering Professionals (TEP) is rising to new heights of speed and efficiency with the pairing of drones, digital imaging, and data analytics. A recently published case study showcasing the contributions of TEP, 5X5 Technologies, and Amazon Web Service (AWS) demonstrates how technology can be put to use to deliver maximum benefit to the tower industry.
Managing the overall project, TEP reached out to 5×5 to streamline the delivery of services to their client.
5×5 designed flight paths engineered to collect information needed to reconstruct a high fidelity 3D digital twin. Employing a UAS workforce instead of climbers, bucket trucks, and cranes cut inspection costs by 35%. The case study also notes that the project was completed in five days, a deadline difficult to achieve with standard inspection methods due to crane scheduling logistics.
“The first time I saw 5X5’s Ávrio platform, I knew. This is the digital twin creation and data analysis platform we’ve been waiting for,” stated TEP’s Structural Division Manager, Jordan Shelley.
Once raw data is collected, the drone operator uploads it directly into 5×5’s powered by AWS cloud. 5X5’s Ávrio Compute Engine reconstructs and precisely scales a 3D digital twin of the entire tower and compound. It then uses a hybrid AI model to analyze key features of the tower such as antenna dimensions, alignment, highest appurtenances, and other components of interest further reducing the number of man hours needed to review all the data and create engineering reports.
Once imported into the Ávrio Reality CAD platform, 5×5 provides users with a set of highly intuitive tools for engineers to complete additional manual analysis of the tower such as mount maps. The digital twin delivers a remarkable level of precision. Depending on the drone used to scan the tower, 5×5’s digital twins can be accurate to 1/32nd of an inch. The data can also be tailored to a multi-tenant situation, allowing the selective sharing of information and the retention of privacy for each tenant.
5X5 Technologies celebrates their close relationship with AWS and credits the success of the collaborative effort to the versatile serverless architecture. The speed of the processing time and unlimited data storage make the tower inspection process, analysis, and mapping a quick, safe, and united endeavor.
For a client considering its cell tower options, TEP can now use the blended technology to suggest different models and present a model of how a new structure would work within an available space. For an existing tower, the work done ahead of time by the electronic team means a safer, quicker, targeted climb.
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